Follow Along for the Top 10 Trends as Millennium Ends

The Trends Research Institute of Rhinebeck, N.Y., has gazed into the future and identified the “Top 10 Trends of 1995.” As the world approaches the end of the millennium, the institute says, “Society is becoming filled with anxiety, hope and wonder about the future.” Here’s what to expect in the short run:

LONGEVITY: “More and more, graying boomers are ‘previewing’ their own mortality in the death and illness of their mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles. Even adults who have children fear they’ll end up like their parents--elderly and with no one to take care of them. They’ll perceive fitness, nutrition, vitamin therapy and spiritual growth as vital to promoting healthy longevity.”

ECONOMIC FALLBACK: “Like a slow but inexorable landslide, legions of Americans will fall out of the middle class this year, victims of a trend that will continue into the next decade. The mass market of middle-class consumers is being replaced by a market of high-end and low-end consumers. The trend will begin to reverse by 2005 with the death of the Industrial Age and the transformation to the Global Age.”

HOMING: As the Industrial Age melts into the Global Age, the institute says, “The conditions that pulled workers away from their homes nearly 150 years ago are disappearing.” People working at or near home was the norm until the Industrial Age forced people to leave home for work, the report says, adding that full-time, home-based businesses total 25 million and are projected to generate nearly $600 billion in 1995.

GREEN REBIRTH: “Environmental groups currently faced with dwindling memberships and resources will find a resurgence of support.” The institute predicts that the current crop of school-age students “will be the first generation of inborn green consumers.”

THEOECONOMY: “This trend of theoeconomic faith--in which the economy is God and finance is the philosophy--is a sacrament of the West’s Cold War victory. Indeed, under theoeconomic teaching, virtually any nation can be seen as an ally if the price is right.” The institute predicts, however, that growing dissatisfaction among have-nots will eventually undercut theoeconomics and help spur a third-party movement in the United States.

X-BOOM: Two of America’s largest population groups--Baby Boomers and the younger Generation X-ers--are developing a spiritual kinship, the institute says. “The foundation of commonalities between Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers is leading to a social, political and economic affinity unmatched between any two adjacent generations since pre-industrial America.”

PIONEERING: “From downsized workers vowing never again to be beholden to corporate giants, to angry taxpayers demanding less government, people increasingly see the American Dream not as fame and fortune, but as being your own boss.” More than 400 rural counties whose populations shrank during the 1980s are now growing, the institute says. “Virtually unspoiled by Industrial Age development and unburdened with antiquated infrastructure, they will blossom as model communities for the 21st Century.”

RESPONSIBILITY TAX: This will be another catalyst for a third-party movement, the institute predicts. The principle behind it is that those who benefit from a public service have the primary responsibility to pay for it. Driven in part by the “economic-fallback” trend, people will resent paying for services they don’t use. “As the responsibility tax trend evolves, the burden of paying for public schools, for instance, will increasingly fall on parents of children attending those schools rather than the public at large.”

FAMILY VALUES: The institute notes that half of America’s 32.3 million children already live with stepparents, single parents or other relatives. “The nuclear family evolved near the end of the 19th Century as America embraced the Industrial Age. For the first time, home life and work life were separated. With the shift to the Global Age paradigm, basic human needs and functions associated with family--love, care-giving, friendship and support--will increasingly be provided by groups and individuals who share common concerns, not just common blood.”

COUNTDOWN 2000: 1995 marks the unofficial countdown to the new millennium, the institute says, “and the beginning of a five-year trend of hope and doubt. A general excitement to ‘catch the millennial wave’ tempered with fears of the future, will increasingly pervade the globe as time marches toward 2000.”

In the meantime, Happy New Year.