A breathless 1953 advertorial from America’s power companies in the Saturday Evening Post predicts life in 1973, and, on the way, propagandizes against the government power projects that brought electrification to America’s poorest communities:
There will be new ways of heating and cooling homes with the help of electricity. Glareless lighting will come on automatically as darkness falls. There will be electric equipment to kill germs in the air.
Most people will have electric kitchen equipment in units which can be arranged in different ways. They will be able to talk electronically to any room in their homes. They will have color television — several sets. They will need many times as much electricity as you use today.
To supply this extra electricity, the electric companies are making tremendous strides. They’ve doubled the postwar supply of electric power. By 1960, they’ll triple it–with more to come. This is one more reason why there is no real need for new federal government electric power projects.