ABSTRACT
The future of any society is unknown in full detail until it emerges, day by day, as the present and then slides into the past. The best of contemporary futurist work builds on a sophisticated understanding and analysis of historical and contemporary trends and seeks to extend these trends in the description of patterns of future societal configuration. Many prognostications of many distinguished American thinkers are statements of what the author wants to happen, not necessarily what he thinks will happen, and frequently they are a bald pitch for some express policy or program. Energy prices rise rapidly, contributing to a lowering of living standards of almost all Americans below the median income. That the endemic inflation of prices beyond accustomed rates of income growth has become the primary problem of Americans is difficult to dispute. Economists have joined in the orgy of complaint, and their explanations of inflation's causes are as diverse as the range of citizens' explanations.
