--> For wealthy & free countries, and for emerging economies that want to get there
--> For citizens that want their country to be in the top 10 listing of happy countries.

 

1. GO GREEN
Create an oil-free society. Oil destroys the environment and the independence of the country. Oil gives the undemocratic oil producing countries the money to buy terrorist attacks or (much more clever) to buy the major companies and financial institutions in the Western world. Create local energy resources. Sun is best, bio is second best. Start producing locally. Create a transport-low society.

 

2. GO HIGH
Higher education is the tool to everything: less poverty, less ignorance, less teen pregnancies, less religious fundamentalism, less reliance on social security.

 

3. GO GAY
Material wealth and happiness prosper most in cultures that accept differences between groups and use them for economic growth. If a country is friendly for gays, it will almost certain give equal rights and access to women and monorities, which are the best enhancers of economic growth. In the future, due to human streams of immigration, there will no longer be majorities; we will all be part of a minority.

 

4. GO FLAT
Flat taxes will stimulate economic growth and will prevent governments from spending money to counterproductive goals. Lesser social security is needed in the upcoming global freelance economy. Back to basics, back to self, back to 1 on 1: work for your own bread and old day. Stop making the neighbours pay for you.

 

5. GO DIGITAL
Create an infrastructure of intelligent bridges, buildings, cars and above all: intelligent money. Intelligent money will be aware of its owner and its destiny. It will create a world of embedded trust, which would have prevented the current credit crisis from happening and will greatly enhance citizen's privacy in a transparant future.

 

6. GO BORDER
Restrict immigration to people that will bring in money or brains.

 

7. GO NEUTRAL
Prevent religion, especially islam, from influencing your laws, government institutions, healthcare and education system. Religious neutrality and the strict separation of church & state are key to harmony in society and to happiness.

 

PS Although I have given an answer and provided you with 7 goals, there are two major problems with the question: the idea of "nation" and the idea of "goals". Basically, the question is unanswerable. Let me explain.
PS 1. Unfortunately, there is no longer such thing as "a nation" in the future. The cohesion provided by physical nearness is disrupted by the two major "flatteners" in a flat world: digital streams and financial streams. Cultural cohesion as we know it will be disrupted by the continous streams of immigration, emigration, re-immigration, and E-migration, particularly in wealthy and free countries.
PS 2 Unfortunately, countries do not have a single set of shared, public, strategic goals, like the famous "put a man on the moon". A variety of actors with different interests have different and often contradicting goals: government organisations, big businesses, and organised crime all influence the future of their country. However, this should not prevent us from trying and doing our very best to do good and be good.

 

Kindly,
Marcel Bullinga, independent European Futurist
www.futurecheck.eu
info@futurecheck.nl

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/government-non-profit/government-policy/GOV_GPO/228225-6425948?browseIdx=0&sik=1218379027600&goback=.ahp.ama#yours