I Made 23 Predictions at the Start of 2023. All 23 Came True. 🤯
I Made 23 Predictions at the Start of 2023. All 23 Came True. 🤯
(Sadly, that's bad news for the world)
On January 5, 2023, I published an article in which I made 23 predictions for 2023.
Only God knows the future, and as I caveated at the start, the article was written in declaratives, but of course, it was simply a bit of speculative fun. That said, I’m a firm believer that predicting the future has a formula:
Chart the current trajectory if nothing changes + assume things will generally get worse (thanks to human fallenness + the second law of thermodynamics)… + assume there will be major surprises that no one can predict. 😂
Clearly, that last factor is the major disruptor. There were loads of things I didn’t see coming from the vantage point of early 2023:
A head of lettuce outlasted a UK Prime Minister
Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli civilians
UK Conservatives crowned their third unelected PM in a row
That Titanic submarine got disappeared by the Rothschilds ;)
But as for my trajectory-based predictions, as we’ll see today, 23 out of 23 were proved correct.
Let’s dive in:
Prediction #1: We don’t all die in a global nuclear war
I posited that nukes are for Boomers, and no one currently in possession of launch codes has the stomach or suicidality for total global annihilation. I still published an article last year about how to prepare for a nuclear strike, but I’m pleased to see even that hasn’t come to pass.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #2 Bitcoin reaches $200 trillion
I immediately wrote “just kidding” in the original article.
The crypto crackdown did, indeed, continue, and as predicted, Tether somehow managed to keep its fraud alive.
The price of Bitcoin was $47,877.03 on Feb 12, 2021, and it's currently sitting at $45,611.50.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #3: American taxpayers are forced to pay nearly $1 trillion in interest
I predicted that by the end of 2023, Americans would be nearly $1 trillion poorer in real wealth, forking over $800,000,000,000+ in interest to parasites.
Sadly, I was not only correct, but America’s corporatist central banksters smashed all records: American taxpayers are now handing over more money to banksters than they’re spending on national “defense” (read: corporate colonialism.)
Imagine how the lives of horrifically poor families could’ve been improved with an extra $12,000+ each.
Interest is a biblical sin and a crime against humanity, and it won’t stop until we jubilee the debt, tax the rich, and invest in the commons.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #4: Inflation still doesn’t go away
“Inflation is transitory,” they lied.
I predicted corporations are now at the point where they have sufficient monopoly power that they don’t give a damn about your wellbeing, and because they don’t have any meaningful global competition since they own all the resources, they will keep price-testing until humanity breaks. That’s absolutely what we experienced in 2023: prices rising, quantity shrinking, quality decreasing.
Inflation is finally falling in most countries thanks to wage suppression, economic stagnation/recession, and data manipulation, but it’s still nowhere near the old 2% targets, and nowhere near the righteous number of 0% theft.
Since January 2020, Federal Reserve banksters have stolen a staggering 22.41% of the US dollar’s purchasing power. CPI was always a bald-faced lie and smart people calculate their own inflation numbers.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #5: The real estate market does not crash
Many experts predicted a housing crash in 2023, but I just couldn’t see much more than a temporary 10% dip because the age of real estate crashes is over.
(We live in the garbage age of bankster financialization — where all houses are making the transition from family homes to massively leveraged hedge fund assets, meaning prices will continue to skyrocket for the rest of our lives.)
Sadly, I was right— median house prices dipped for two quarters and are now rising again.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #6: Interest rates still go up for a bit
Sadly, I smashed this one out of the park. Interest rates rose as predicted, but not high enough to right real estate prices or get rid of inflation, and now that the Fed is signaling it’s done raising interest rates, investors will flood in to buy the houses your children will rent for the rest of their lives.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #7: American cops kill 1,200 people
Sadly, American cops killed 1,191 people as of the end of November, and when December’s data comes in, it’s safe to say it will be nearer to 1,300.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #8: The housing crisis worsens as land-lorders continue to exploit tenants with impunity
Parasites continued to rob the working contributor class by means of the evil feudal practice of land-hoarding.
The pandemic saw land-lorders leverage mass desperation to skyrocket rents under threat of homelessness, and now that the mania is over, land-lorders are locking down hard to keep rent prices elevated: median rent prices fell just one-tenth of one percent in 2023, leaving rents wildly overpriced and causing major hardship for renters.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #9: Homelessness continues to rise
Joe Biden’s handlers said they could decrease homelessness by 25% within two years and I predicted they were utterly delusional because investors are diametrically opposed to solving homelessness.
582,000 people were counted as homeless in 2022, and that number jumped massively in 2023 to 653,104… the highest leap since record-keeping began.
Over 71,000 precious human beings — people like you, your spouse, and your children — were thrown into the streets due to human greed.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #10: Britain continues its descent back into feudalism
As predicted, the UK’s unapologetically corrupt corporatist Conservatives went on a rampage, plunging Britain into economic stagnation while their money-printing inflation ravaged purchasing power. Their wicked for-the-rich-only policies have led to a rise in unemployment, which meant robberies increased by 11%, knife violence rose by 3%, and gun violence rose by 13%.
As we speak, the Cons are getting rid of inheritance taxes on hyper-wealthy families while continuing to erode and dismantle the nation’s beloved universal healthcare system that was the best in the world before the Cons took power.
An appalling 7.77 million people are currently waiting for appointments and treatments, with people having to suffer in pain for nearly three years for routine surgeries.
Meanwhile, the Cons are doing their best to bribe voters into voting Blue in the upcoming election by slashing taxes despite racking up the national debt to an all-time high.
(Never believe right-wingers when they say they’re the party of fiscal responsibility — they are liars and the facts prove it.)
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #11: Global debt grows by trillions
Total global debt topped $305 trillion in 2022, and I guaranteed it would go higher because secular politicians would never dream of declaring a debt jubilee, banning interest, or even creating debt-free public money.
The latest data we have is Q2, where total global debt topped $307 trillion, but with rising interest rates and profligate wastage on interest and war, we can assume the final number will be somewhere closer to $350 trillion.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #12: Subscription serfdom takes more territory on the path to you owning nothing
I’ve been sounding the alarm on subscription serfdom for a while now — corporations are literally training our children for a life of assetless neo-feudalism — and sadly there are more land-lorders, app startups, emerging monopolies, and payment plans than one year ago.
2023 saw more people rent-trapped, Apple introduced a monthly fee to to have a warranty, and McKinsey published a report estimating the used-car leasing market will have a compound annual growth rate of about 15% from 2023 to 2030. (If this happens, there’s a VERY good chance you won’t be able to afford to buy a car in 6 years without massive debt.)
I do not see an economic exit on the horizon. Corporations will not stop until you own nothing and must rent everything.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #13: Airbnb continues to destroy families and communities
Airbnb stock is up 59% for the year, enriching parasite shareholders to the tune of $32 billion at the cost of trillions in increased house prices and rent prices for everyone else.
As predicted, Scott Galloway remained silent about one of his favorite investments, even though he claims to “care” about the next generation.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #14: Global democracy remains in decline for the seventeenth consecutive year
Sadly this one came true as well:
Moscow’s war of aggression led to devastating human rights atrocities in Ukraine. New coups and other attempts to undermine representative government destabilized Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Peru, and Brazil. Previous years’ coups and ongoing repression continued to diminish basic liberties in Guinea and constrain those in Turkey, Myanmar, and Thailand, among others. Two countries suffered downgrades in their overall freedom status: Peru moved from Free to Partly Free, and Burkina Faso moved from Partly Free to Not Free.
Congratulations are in order to Freedom House for fifty years of sounding the alarm on increasing authoritarianism across the planet.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #15: We won’t reach the breaking point
There was no civil war in the US, the Brits did not riot against the crowning of King Charles, Canadians continued to poll in favor of corporatist parties in red, blue, and orange ties, and there were no nationwide general strikes in the West.
Civilizations always do eventually reach the breaking point, but we still have a long way to go.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #16: The Elon Musk cult starts to disintegrate
Tesla’s stock doubled in 2023, but it didn’t rally to the insanity of its $1+ trillion valuation in 2021. It’s still overpriced by 4–5X, and his following is still rabid, but there are growing signs Elon’s sainthood is waning:
His popularity dipped with older generations in 2023.
He was named the Scoundrel of the Year by the New Republic for his questionable actions and statements.
Elon Musk faced some controversies and criticisms, such as his Twitter acquisition and voicing contrarian views on politics and the environment, which led to a massive advertiser boycott.
Famed biographer Walter Isaacson published an authorized biography on Musk, which shows his “addiction to drama, his craving for risk, his sense of mission, and his maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.” Isaacson writes that Musk is “a tough yet vulnerable man-child with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.”
Like Taylor Swift and the Kardashians, we are sadly stuck with this tax-avoider for the foreseeable future.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #17: The world’s corporate-captured politicians will do nothing meaningful about climate change
As predicted, coal had another record year, reaching all-time consumption highs.
As predicted, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels reached a record high in 2023.
COP28 produced little more than hot air.
I’ll keep saying it: Pollution is far too profitable for the corporations, nations, and politicians that benefit from it.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #18: New global warming records are shattered
As predicted, humanity set all sorts of appalling new heat records and ice melt records.
Plus, as predicted, El Niño did its thing in the second half of the year and cranked up the already-toasty oven.
(Luckily, as predicted, more people continue to wise to the con of shaming the middle class into not eating meat, using plastic straws, heating with woodstoves, driving fast, or taking baths.)
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #19: Tech monopolies post their largest profits of all time
Microsoft: $71.8 billion in profits
Alphabet (Google): $69.9 billion in profits
Meta (Facebook): $23.2 billion in profits
Amazon: $21.3 billion in profits
I also predicted Google and Amazon would be richly rewarded for firing human beings in 2023. Well…
Amazon fired 27,000 people and the stock went up $713 billion.
Alphabet (Google) fired 12,000 and the stock went up $611 billion.
There’s a word for you get people to do work and then firing them so you can keep the wealth they created: evil.
The working contributor class is broke and in debt because for-profit corporations surpress their wages + charge consumer more than necessary in order to create unearned profits for shareholders.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #20: Russia and Ukraine will still be at war
I told you Ukraine is Putin’s Vietnam.
We’re quickly approaching 500,000 casualties in this senseless land-grab.
But, so long as the Americans keep bankrolling Zelensky and Russia keeps selling its oil to the East, young bodies will get fed through the meat-grinder for the egos of old men.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #21: Suicides reach an all-time high
Sadly, like all the rest, this one came true. More than 50,000 Americans committed suicide in 2023, setting an all-time record.
Globally, that number hit 8.6 million.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #22: More people will get addicted to pills
Big Pharma won’t stop until every person on earth is hooked on a dozen different overpriced pills, and the growth in US pharma stats for 2023 are astounding:
525% increase in fills for hydroxychloroquine
70% increase in fills for generic Lexapro
62% increase in fills for dexamethasone
39% increase in fills for ibuprofen
31% increase in fills for generic Zoloft
27% increase in fills for metformin HCl
21% increase in fills for trazodone HCl
20% increase in fills for generic Prozac
16% increase in fills for generic Adderall
Americans will now spend half their lives on prescription pills.
Drug overdoses reached an all-time high, too, smashing well past 100,000.
Outcome: Correct
Prediction #23: Most people find a way to carry on
Astoundingly, despite the engineered homelessess, murder, violence, pollution, suicide, hopelessness, rampant poverty, political corruption, compounding debt, and the corporate economic takeover of the world, 99.89% of the population didn’t kill themselves in 2023.
In fact, we saw a 0.95% increase in the growth rate compared to last year, and the net global population grew by 75 million babies, reaching a total of more than 8 billion people sharing this planet for the first time in history.
Outcome: Correct
So ends 2023 and our 23 predictions.
(On a personal note, I made a jokey dad prediction that Baby Concord’s first spoken phrase would be either “corporate corruption” or “sic semper tyrannis.” Hilariously, his first phrase was a straight middle finger to the manipulative meat-shaming venture capital vegans: “More beef!”)
Concord is now two years and three months old, and showers on his own, helps Mommy with laundry, helps Daddy with cooking, puts his dishes in the sink after meals, and does all the garbage, compost, and recycling. He can walk for nearly an hour, and he joins me in my gratitude practice of thanking Jesus for seven things each day. (Concord is mostly grateful for “big airplanes,” “huge trucks,” and “throwing rocks in river water.”) He’s learning to speak two languages, and we’re trying to raise him with three core values: Faith, Stewardship, Contribution. The parasite mindset must be eradicated from our civilization, and it is our responsibility to disciple our children into a responsible, loving, caring member of the human race. To do so, we need to live by example.
Thanks for reading, friends. God bless you all.
Be sure to check back next week when I publish my 24 predictions for 2024!
PS—if there’s anything you’d like me to speculate on, just hit reply and let me know. :-)