In The Year 2100

The Port Authority is set to take over Stewart or Newburgh International Airport up in Orange County, NY. The deal allows for PANYNJ to control Stewart until the year 2100, which made me wonder what sort of world will it be when the Port Authority's lease runs up.

Some possiblities:

• Legalised gay marriage nationwide, and a divorce rate of 42% or lower, courtesy of that fact. (NB: the current rate is 50%)
• A looser federation of the United States resembling something akin to Belgium with stronger state and/or regional governments and a federal government whose role is limited basically down to foreign and monetary policy.
• Despite that reorganisation, we have Universal Healthcare overseen by the Federal Government which the states or regions will pay into and administer so that each state/region with a surplus can give to areas that are ailing.
• Barring the discovery and implementation of a replacement for oil, we will have less flights than we do presently due to peak oil.
• An 80-90% Urban populace due to peak oil.
• Our 4th minority president is elected and no one bats an eyelash, but a gay or lesbian president has yet to be elected (although there will have been at least 2 serious contenders that get relatively close).
• An independent is elected president, and lasts one term because it's just too weird.
• Still a two party system, but it's Liberal & Conservative, since "Labour" is still a dirty word, even if the beliefs make total sense.
• At least 10-20 years of state (literally "state," in this case since the Federal Government would never participate) involvement in the economy with state-owned airlines, gas stations, electric companies, and a few state-owned telecoms in the Plains and in the South after internet access is declared a right.
• Detroit is revived and gentrified as a Midwestern San Francisco, along with the attending problems of economic disparity.
• A luddite rebellion, oddly born from an internet movement, leads to a re-establishment of local commercial arts with less state subsidy than before.
• In a surprising move, the television industry asks for a federal subsidy as the growth of DVRs lead to a severe downturn in advertiser revenue. The federal government balks and a group of states led by California, New York, Illinois, and Florida attempt to buyout one of the faltering big 4 networks. This in turn leads to the creation of an ARD style system amongst 2 of the previous big 4, while the remaining 4 stay in private hands.
• The average movie stays in theatres for 2 months, goes to pay-per-view the following month, and then to DVD two months after that.
• Movie star and entertainment executive salaries level off to $600,000 primarily due to two trends: the weakness of the entertainment industry and the devaluing of celebrity as research indicates that celebrity does not hold much pull when it comes to whether a person will see a movie.
• The filmed musical does not become obsolete, but tends to be seen more often on television than in cinemas.
• Anderson Cooper's infamous televised faux-pas ("As a gay man...") continues to be ranked high on the majority of "Most Surprising" moments.
• Jodie Foster went to her grave closeted.
• Car ownership decreases severely (in comparison to present), but mass transit skyrockets as entrepeneurs figure out how to make money using the millions of miles of freight rail tracks all over the US.
• US citizens with a passport increase, then decrease, decrease again, and then rise slightly.
• The year 2100 sees the 50th anniversary of the end of the Cuban embargo, and the 10th of Puerto Rican independence.
• DC remains the last colony on the American mainland.
• US citizens can travel freely to Iran and North Korea, the latter which has had 40 years without the KIS/KJI autocrats, and retains an open border and shared currency with South Korea (with which it is in a EU style confederation).
• The PRC & Taiwan still hate each other, but don't let it get in the way of business.
• 40% of Americans claim to have a working knowledge of spoken Chinese, 14% claim written ability. This is manifested as a generation gap since many children use it to talk behind their parents' backs.
• May Day becomes a state holiday in California, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
• There are still 3 Law & Order series on television.

I'm just sayin'.