The Worst Predictions of All Time!

Yes, yes, this Post has nothing to do with Employment Law, I know!  But, I found an 1999 article from Herbert I. London called "Piercing the Gloom and Doom" and enjoyed it so much, I thought I would pass it along.

Here are some of my favorites, as per Mr. London's article:

Uh, Mr. President.....

Reisman Never Saw This Coming...

In 1905, Grover Cleveland said, "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote." 



Social scientist David Riesman declared, in 1967, "If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women."

"You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck," said Jim Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, in firing Elvis Presley after a performance in 1954. 

Nowhere Man?!

In the 1830s, Dionysius Lardner, author of The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated, said, "Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."




Let's Just Stick to Telegrams...

"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be considered as a means of communication," said the president of Western Union in 1876. "The device is of inherently no value to us."   

The president of Michigan Savings Banks advised Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company because, he said, "The horse is here to stay, the automobile is a novelty."

Like a Pet Rock....

In 1921, radio pioneer David Sarnoff said, "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"

Darryl Zanuck observed, in 1946, "Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."

BORRRR-INGGGG....

In 1926, Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, said, "While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility."

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible," said Lord Kelvin, president of the British Royal Society and one of the nineteenth century’s greatest experts on thermodynamics.

Na na na na na, Pops!

The Reverende Milton Wright, "If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings; He would have made us angels; He would have made us birds. Let me assure you, you will not see people fly." Three months later, Wright’s two sons, Orville and Wilbur, flew the first airplane, from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

"A rocket will never be able to leave the earth’s atmosphere," stated the New York Times in 1936.

Prepare to be Amazed!

"Space travel is utter bilge," said a British astronomer in 1956.

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom," said Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Milliken in 1923.



Trisk, Trisk....

"Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard," said Tris Speaker in 1919. He was talking about Babe Ruth. 

The chairman of IBM said, "I think there is a world market for about five computers," in 1943.

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home," said the president of Digital Electronic Corporation in 1977.


In 1929, Yale economist Irving Fisher said, "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Two weeks later, the stock market crashed.




How About $Millions?

MGM executive Irving Thalberg had this for Louis B. Mayer regarding Gone With the Wind: "Forget it, Louie, no Civil War picture ever made a  nickel."



or Else Become an Icon....

The director of Blue Book Modeling Agency advised Marilyn Monroe in 1944, "You better learn secretarial work or else get married."

Right, then....

"We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out anyway," said the president of Decca Records, rejecting the Beatles in 1962.

"We will bury you," predicted Nikita Kruschev in 1958.

Which one is your favorite? 

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