Previous poster in the time capsule / american optimism thread is spot on, we expected at a minimum to have lunar commercial colonization by now. If you watch TV shows (Beyond 2000) and read science/sci-fi publications (like OMNI) you will get a better understanding of the optimism we had. After the Soviet Union collapsed, many of us thought that there was nothing remaining to hold us back as a species. We rightly assumed that we would be sending joint expeditions to the solar system, robots and automation would have a much larger foothold then they actually do now.
Race was also not a significant issue in my generation, there was always inner city crime but we actually got along, for the most part as the non-whites I knew tried to emulate and adopt what was wholesome in white culture. The main things we feared were nuclear war, nuclear contamination, AIDS (scope and transmission methods had not been established yet), commercial air disasters and the beginning of drug/crime epidemic.
Otherwise we fully expected to have at least the society from 2010 if not the beginnings of literal Star Trek before most of us where going to be 50+
... And we could of, and should have had all this. It was fucking stolen from us with Wall Street theft, "defense industry" theft, endless pointless wars, the attack on our very core culture, the drugging of our children, the poisoning of our food, outright mind control, social engineering, surveillance state, police revenue seeking, race baiting, TSA scanning, your television transcribing you fucking private conversations and the political class getting away with literally eating children.
I'm so furious about what has been done to us and what they have stolen, they have set humanity back so far right when we were at the cusp of greatness, when the stars where in reach.