| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a flying taxi of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Cleanup on aisle the future. Source: Boston Globe/Getty Images Future SchlockFor those of us who grew up consuming science fiction, the future has turned out to be a bummer. By 2021 we should already have androids and space colonies, or at least space hotels. Instead we got Jeff Bezos orbiting the planet for 11 minutes and 15 different posting platforms for Nazis. The crowning technological achievement of the millennium, the smartphone, is wrecking our eyesight, writes Therese Raphael. Children, who have been staring at screens instead of going to school for most of the past year, have it the worst.  But hey, at least we're getting flying cars, by, uh, 2024. That's roughly when the seven bajillion different flying-taxi companies that are the fresh new hotness in the SPACiverse plan to be in business, writes Chris Bryant. Everybody's throwing money at these things, which could mean overcrowding, either in the skies of 2024 or, more likely, the markets of 2021. By 2024 there will also probably be a lot more robots. Unfortunately, they will probably be doing our jobs, writes Conor Sen. Today's wage-price spiral is tomorrow's Marty the Robot creepily following you around the grocery store. Of course, maybe they'll be too busy to travel back in time to kill us. Plus, having robots doing grunt work could free humans for more fulfilling, productive jobs like flying taxis or launching Jeff Bezos into space. Nice Democracy You Got ThereThe year we get flying taxis, 2024, will also be an election year in the U.S. It promises to be dystopian, given the trends since 2020. President Joe Biden and the Democrats won, but ex-President Donald Trump and the Republicans have decided to pretend they won. It's a bold strategy that might pay off for them, if they can convince enough voters and local officials to go along. It's a ploy so effective that other wannabe authoritarians around the world are giving it a shot, writes Tim O'Brien. The latest is Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who's making Trumpian fraud claims and stoking violence to cling to power. In that country, at least, a broad coalition of politicians united by their common interest of being sick to death of Benjamin Netanyahu might prevail. There's little such unity in the U.S. Further Politics Reading: The media is focusing on the GOP's inflation rhetoric because it feels normal. But these aren't normal times. — Jonathan Bernstein There's Got to Be a Better Way to Save the PlanetYou could forgive environmentalists for feeling cocky these days. An activist investor just got a bunch of climate-minded people on Exxon Mobil's board, and the Hague is forcing Royal Dutch Shell to clean up its act. The problem with such victories is how expensive and time-consuming they are, writes Bloomberg's editorial board. Proxy fights and international-court lawsuits are a major drag, and by the time you win enough of them to really make a difference, it will be too late for the planet. Governments should stop getting lawyers and activists to do their dirty work and set robust climate standards everybody can follow. Further Reading Iran is giving Venezuela some of the speedboats it uses to harass ships in the Gulf. The U.S. can't let that happen here. — James Stavridis Big aerospace companies will have to pay up to hire back workers they laid off in the pandemic. — Brooke Sutherland Ending Trump's TikTok and WeChat bans will help Biden win trust with European allies to confront China. — Tim Culpan Warren Buffett is investing in overseas fintech because that's where the growth is. — Anjani Trivedi To succeed at investing, you need some Dennis Rodmans in your portfolio. — Jared Dillian ICYMINew G-7 photo just dropped. To combat rising seas, Floridians are simply building bigger beach houses. There's a shortage in Lamborghinis. KickersPink glaciers are not a good sign. (h/t Ellen Kominers) Happy 50th birthday to the Gates of Hell, still burning after all these years. (h/t Mike Smedley) The G-7 leaders were lovingly rendered in a trash "Mount Recyclemore." (h/t Alistair Lowe) Getting more sleep is basically as good as therapy or winning the lottery for your mental state. Green onion Chex cereal, reviewed.  Notes: Please send green onion Chex and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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