A few days after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in 2016, the World Economic Forum posted a blog to their social media pages titled “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.”
The blog written by Ida Auken of Denmark spouts many theories about what the world and society will look like and how it will function in 2030 (14 years after publication).
Here are some of the highlights:
- Welcome to the year 2030. […] I don't own anything. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own any appliances or any clothes.
- Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. […] One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.
- First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly.
- In our city we don't pay any rent, because someone else is using our free space whenever we do not need it. My living room is used for business meetings when I am not there.
- Since transport became free, we stopped having all those things stuffed into our home. Why keep a pasta-maker and a crepe cooker crammed into our cupboards? We can just order them when we need them.
- Shopping? […] Sometimes I find this fun, and sometimes I just want the algorithm to do it for me. It knows my taste better than I do by now.
- My biggest concern is all the people who do not live in our city. Those we lost on the way. Those who decided that it became too much, all this technology. Those who felt obsolete and useless when robots and AI took over big parts of our jobs.
I encourage you to read it in full.
Amid all the news about the 2016 election, this strange blog didn’t gather much traction at the time.
However, in 2021, the World Economic Forum themed its yearly conference “The Great Reset,” which brought everyone’s attention back to this 2016 blog and the WEF’s predictions for 2030.
As of publication time, we are at the halfway point from now to the future the WEF envisioned. Are we closer than we think? In 7 years, is this how we will live?
Let’s take a closer look.
8 Predictions for the World in 2030 by the WEF
On November 12, 2016, the day after Ida Auken published the blog “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better,” the World Economic Forum posted a video to social media that included 8 predictions for the world in 2030.
While the original tweets have been deleted, you can still view the video and see the 8 predictions on their website here.
You can also read them for yourself below:
- You’ll own nothing. And you’ll be happy. Whatever you want, you’ll rent. And it’ll be delivered by drone.
- The US won’t be the world’s leading superpower. A handful of countries will dominate.
- You won’t die waiting for an organ donor. We won’t transplant organs. We’ll print new ones instead.
- You’ll eat less meat. An occasional treat, not a staple. For the good of the environment and our health.
- A billion people will be displaced by climate change. We’ll have to do a better job at welcoming and integrating refugees.
- Polluters will have to pay to emit carbon dioxide. There will be a global price on carbon. This will help make fossil fuels history.
- You could be preparing to go to Mars. Scientists will have worked out how to keep you healthy in space. The start of a journey to find alien life?
- Western values will have been tested to the breaking point. Checks and balances that underpin our democracies will be forgotten.
The Great Reset Today
If you attempt to google “the Great Reset” today, you will immediately find information about the Great Reset 2020.
Many people will attempt to say the Great Reset is being taken over by conspiracy theorists.
But the truth is that The Great Reset agenda (yes, agenda) has been around well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the original 2016 predictions for a great reset in 2030 are buried under all the search results for the WEF’s Great Reset push during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, the Great Reset has its own separate website collection on the WEF’s website (note: this webpage has been removed and the content has been moved here: https://edubirdie.com/blog/great-reset).
On this site, readers can learn all about how the World Economic Forum is “starting The Great Reset initiative” following the COVID-19 crisis.
According to the WEF, the Great Reset is a great opportunity. They write:
“As we enter a unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery, this initiative will offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons. Drawing from the vision and vast expertise of the leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities, the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being.”
In a World Economic Forum post entitled “Now is the time for a 'great reset',” they claim the Great Reset agenda (their word, not mine) has 3 components.
- The first would steer the market toward fairer outcomes.
- The second component of a Great Reset agenda would ensure that investments advance shared goals, such as equality and sustainability.
- The third and final priority of a Great Reset agenda is to harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good, especially by addressing health and social challenges.
Essentially, the Great Reset agenda is still pushing for those predictions made in 2016.
We need to remain aware of the agenda and our role in it.
What We Look Like 7 Years ahead of 2030
Take a second and consider Auken’s blog that theorized about the future and the 8 predictions made by the WEF.
Are we moving in that direction?
- We’ve already talked about how we are moving towards a cashless society. In the small town where I live, even city buses just went cashless. A cashless society will make it easier for society to shift to one where no one owns anything.
- We’ve seen a huge boom in services over products. People don’t buy DVDs now. They buy streaming services. Why buy a car when you can pay for a car-sharing service?
- We’ve seen people enjoy free communication via the internet, as well as people having their free speech via this free form of communication jeopardized.
- We’ve seen the big push towards clean energy and how it is affecting American farmers. We’ve heard about billionaires purchasing farmlands so we can eat less meat.
- We’ve seen a move towards co-op workspaces and Airbnb, so free spaces are seemingly always being used.
- We’ve gotten used to 2-day shipping for everything we need, and Grubhub fast food deliveries right to our door, relieving us of the need to go anywhere ourselves.
- We’ve seen shopping malls close and have taken note of the ads Google chooses for us based on our personal algorithm.
- We’ve seen AI and robots take over jobs and have heard reports even more job cuts are coming.
- We’ve experienced a lack of privacy in everyday life. Somehow, we get a Facebook ad the next day for that product we were discussing in our car with our spouse on our date last night.
So, in short, yes. It looks like what was predicted for 2030 is not only possible but it’s happening in real time.
What Do We Do Now?
We don’t want our autonomy taken from us. We pride ourselves on our self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
Don’t let go of that feeling!
Hold on to your pride in your self-sufficiency.
Here are some ways to keep your feet planted firmly:
- Support local. Shop locally for products, services, and food. Visit the farmers’ market.
- Build your skillset. Learn skills that AI and robots can’t master, like tying ropes and lighting fires.
- Invest wisely. Buy property. Stock up on long-term emergency supplies.
- Hobby farm. Produce your own food.
- Protect your privacy. Take steps to stay safe online.
Know what is coming and prepare, friends.
In liberty,
Elizabeth Anderson
