America 2050 Prospectus

The America 2050 Strategy will provide a framework for the public and private policies and investments needed to accommodate the nation’s growth in the 21st century. This framework is urgently needed in a time of rapid technological, geopolitical, demographic, and environmental change. As never before, the nation’s economic prospects are threatened by global competitors, all of whom have created long-range strategies for growth and competitiveness. In the face of these challenges, America is flying blind. We have no national strategy to sustain our success in the face of this competition.

America’s third century urgently requires a new strategy to lay the foundation for the nation’s future competitiveness, sustainability, and quality of life. The National Committee for America 2050, composed of business and civic leaders, policy makers, and regional planners, was formed in response to this challenge. America 2050 is developing a framework for America’s future growth that identifies 10 or more emerging megaregions as the proper scale at which to make the investments that will maximize America’s competitiveness and broaden opportunities for all members of our society.

This framework will promote integrated investments in mobility, environment, and economic development that are needed to guide the nation’s growth in the 21st century. It will provide capacity for growth by creating a world-class multimodal transportation system of new smart highways, high-speed rail, airports, and seaports, all of these linked to concentrated developments at central hubs. It will preserve large environmental (or ​“green infrastructure”) systems, strengthen metropolitan regions and urban centers, and alleviate concentrated poverty by expanding economic opportunities to bypassed areas. The federal role in land use will be reformed to support collaborations across regional boundaries, promote megaregional decision making, and utilize federal funding to ensure consistency with national objectives for growth.

In the process of achieving these outcomes, we are harnessing one of America’s great strengths – the ability of private associations of business and civic leaders to work in partnership with government across economic sectors, political boundaries, and functional disciplines. We are creating ​“bottom up” strategies to guide the actions of local and state governments and the business and civic sectors.

At stake is a fundamental opportunity to organize and direct the trillions of dollars of investments that will be made over the next generation in infrastructure, housing and urban development, environmental protection, and new energy systems and to harness these investments to improve the competitiveness and livability of every part of the country.

America 2050 will result in five major outcomes

• A national framework for prosperity, growth, and competitiveness
• A world class multimodal transportation system
• Protected environmental landscapes and coastal estuaries
• Economic and social opportunities for all members of society
• Globally competitive megaregions

For additional information on the America 2050 project, visit the archived America 2050 website.