It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.
And then things got really bad. Read the essay to see the rest of our future(?).
#28 Cursor_ said “If you want to see what will happen to the US in the next 100 years take a plane to the UK.”
I believe this is spot on and we have a good start.
#38 Buzz
“Equal probability” In other words not a chance in hell.
I’m pretty sure that anything that gets the attention of Alex Jones is not worth paying attention to.
This is why I used all my “change” to buy weapons.
i think we are like a mountain climber falling off of a mountain… you fall and all hell breaks loose… but then you stop and you’re elated… but then you look down and you realize you’re on a ledge impossible to get off of and your legs are broken. zawhoopppadeeedooo!!! you’re not dead… yet. i’m have always been an optimist but i just don’t see this turning around… too much was been sold off, ripped off, and just plain screwed up… look at the great lakes area for crying out loud. the old saying “patriotism is the last bastion of bastards” has killed us… war in the middle east, greed and corruption in washington and wall street and even on main street has done to the republic for which we stand what no enemy could have. long live the republic
I would suggest “Daemon” by Daniel Suarez as a much more plausible, but still unlikely, path. I heard about it from someone on this blog, so might as well pass it on.
There are two long term tensions in America which define us. First is less populated states getting more than their fair share of the total pie. Call it the “Senate” problem. Second is the natural tension between borrowers and lenders.
California suddenly has a budget surplus if it got parity in payments to the USG and returns from same.
The second is is more serious, but not as serious as many people would have you believe. People who buy large amounts of debt are, by definition, rich. If the don’t get paid back they will merely be less rich. It is impossible to pay back all the debt that has been run up. So, some rich people are going to have a haircut on their debt investments. These people tend to fund death squads when they are mad, so it isn’t a picnic.
If they get too uppity then the public revolts and starts chopping off well-coiffed heads. It is ugly, but it has happened countless times in history.
Those are the actual worst case scenarios.
#39 Drug dealers will never go bankrupt. They will do very well in a barter society. A whole new type of “greenback”.
Oh, and this idea has been pushed by one of the FSBs, former KGB, big idea men. His personal experience might influence his judgment.
What I think people are not taking into account is that unlike places in Africa where there was really no firm infrastructure in place or Afghanistan where it was destroyed by the Soviets and now further crippled by the US. We have everything in place to at least slide into a second rate nation.
This is why I said the UK. It was THE first rate nation in the 19th century. It started sliding after WWI and by WWII the US and the USSR took over as the super powers. The US had the driver seat as the Dollar replaced the Pound Sterling.
Since then the UK has diminished and suckled from the teat of the US. The US will slide further, the dollar will lose all status and it will either suck from the teat of India or China. It has already started with China but with some protest. So switching to India may be easier to take than China. But it may HAVE to be the Chinese as they will most likely have the bigger teat and larger milk flow. And you know how Amurikens love their big titties.
100 years more and then the US will slide into Spain. Once powerful it fell to a second rate nation and now hovers about the third rate. Sleepy, of little consequence and a bargain holiday destination with lots of local beauty and good food.
Canada will follow suit as well when they no longer have the US as their main source of income.
Now there is a way to stem that tide. But it means having to borrow from the Europeans. And that is to make a union among all of the Americas, north and south.
But the nationalists will cry foul, come up with their socialist/communist BS. And even IF we could pull it off, it would still run into the troubles the EU face with keeping sovereignty in tact.
Yet that too is a crock. Nations must evolve to keep civilisation in tact. Look at Europe alone. There were many large regions under the control of a King and then eventually they split into separate nations and now the cycle is trying to get them back into one land mass in the form of the EU. Which will split and the reform and so on.
This is how it works. There is nothing wrong with it, you just have to adapt. And that is one of the few things humans do well. Adapt.
Cursor_
Actually, by definition, humans adapt all to well to any condition. It does take some time, thats the rub.
the assumption of globalization was that the poorer countries boats would get floated in a global “free market” but what has really happened is the richer countries are taking on water… in the u.s. we are looking more and more like a banana republic where the major wealth and power is in the hands of a major few, no real middle class to speak of outside some shop keepers and the rest of the population left groveling and a major police force to keep the order. ya ppl adapt but to what….
This world has thrown worse at humans before.
Can we say Black Death?
The loss of the US as a superpower is only shocking to US people with too much nationalist zeal.
To the rest of the world it is just our turn.
Austria
United Kingdom
Spain
Russia
The Ottomans
Rome
Greece
Persia
Egypt
China
Japan
Khmer
India
Aztecs
Mayans
Incas
and on and on and on.
And in the case of China and India they are back on the rise.
People need to accept empires rise and fall. And this is the fall. Adapt, change or get out of the way.
Cursor_
Well with so much of the US’s deficit spending, going to fund the military around the world. When the collapse does come, there will be a well equipped military to fight off the starving mobs that would ransack Washington DC. And the big bankers, wherever they are hiding. Why is it that any nation that goes into economic ruin, always has a super-strong military force on hand, to protect parts of its remaining wealth? Ever wonder?
Actually, if a lot less of the US’s budget was spend on the black hole of the military’s excesses. It just might recover, from any financial mismanagement. But of all the talk of cut backs and belt tightening. It never seems to effect the US military budget, at all. Which keeps all those defense contractors well financed. Which is always the excuse for not cutting any defense project. It’ll cost jobs? Hell, they don’t care. It’ll cost Wall Street big profits. That’s when it’s serious.
And until 2008, defense spending was the only way Wall Street got infusions of tax money. But then the bailouts started happening. And now it gets both. Why doesn’t Wall Street just send Vampires to our doors? They suck our life’s blood, in most other respects. I guess they’re afraid the wooden stakes and cross will come after them.
Perhaps in place of a “Tea Party”, there ought to be a Stake and Cross Party. What that implies might shake them up a little. At least they wouldn’t be so bold as brass to expect handouts.
wow, this dallas guy is even more delusional that “bobbo, with his lips planted firmly on obama’s buttocks”
It pisses me off that the Right’s strategy is to force AMmerica to fail in order to make the people afraid and flock to their pandering lies.
#55: So in other words, blame this mess on people OTHER THAN THE ONES IN CHARGE???
Now that’s a typical Liberal outlook.
No accountability! Blame someone else!
scadragon,
That is disingenuous bullshit. The GOP sits on everything, blocking progress (how many appointees have they allowed to go through?) and then blaming the lack of action on Obama.
You are either stupid or disingenous to make that lame statement. Didn’t you watch that SChoolhouse Rock video on how a bill becomes a law?
The recent idiocy with the 911 responders legisation is a perfect example. The GOP didn’t vote for it because the Dems blocked adding any riders (read pork) onto it.
Then again, the GOP is against everything, because blocking everything (if you don’t understand how the GOP doies it you are dumber than I thought) helps the GOP make claims that nothing is being done.
By preventing anything from happening the GOP can say nothing is happening and “things must change”. (I always wonder how the typical GOP voter can jibe that assertion with the fact that most of those GOP senators have been in power for DECADES.)
Typical right-wing evil (yes, I said evil). It works because the Democrats are spineless.