S O U R C E S I N C L U D E P A R A G K H A N N A & J O E LK O T K I N

B Y B R I T T N E Y W E B E R

Future of America

Summary of Joel Kotkin

Kotkin’s outlook is optimistic His belief is that by the mid 21st

century, America will be home to 400 million people (100 million more than the beginning of 2000)

America will be a better place with 400 million in his opinion:

More people means solutions to the housing crisis going on

The population will need homes which in turn will jumpstart the construction of new homes • Providing jobs

America vs China

Because the countries such as China are limiting their population by laws, their countries will start seeing a decrease in their population which will not help their economy

Kotkin’s believes that with America’s population almost doubling other countries, it will help the economy be stronger and more efficient

Khanna sees China as competition in the future and does not see their powers limiting

Summary of Khanna

The Second World compares and contrasts the three leading powers in the world today

America, Europe, and China

Although these countries have different economies, they are all intermingled and rely on one other

He breaks down the “second world” countries and determines their strengths and weaknesses from the inside out

Kotkin Khanna

Optimistic Sees other countries

decreasing population as decreasing threats

Has hope that America will regain its strength back and become better than before

Relies heavily on statistics for his hypothesis

Pessimistic Looks into other

countries and their threats

Offers reasons as to why America has already seen it’s better days and it’s power is not going to increase

Uses his experience to determine his hypothesis

Kotkin vs Khanna

Second World Countries

Second world countries such as eastern Europe, central Asia, South America, and the Middle East are rising on the economic power scale

Khanna believes America, Europe and China should not downsize their roles in the future Because the three countries

have so much influence on each other, he believes that by the mid 21st century, other developing countries will also be in competition standards and something to prepare for

Kotkin does not examine or take into consideration second or third world countries in his book His outlook towards China and

Europe are not anything to be feared as in Khanna’s outlook

Suburbia and Family

Kotkin believes the original baby boomers will begin having their offspring between 2010-2020 and they are the future generation of America

They will be the hope for new inventions, energy efficient technology, creating jobs, lead to the doubling size of the economy, boost consumer spending

Suburbia is a term Kotkin used to describe the population living in the suburbs

According to him, because the original baby boomers are older, they prefer the suburbs compared to urban living

The younger generation will flock to the cities and populate them until they reach the late 20’s to early 30’s and appeal more to suburbs

This could create a problem with commuting

Kotkin’s solution to this is that more jobs will be focused in homes than in cities