The world will go out with a whimper instead of a bang, as someone once said. In America's case, there won't be a "collapse" so much as a consolidating, of resources and wealth. With competition for US jobs now a worldwide stage, no-skill or low-skill American workers - and that could reach well into what was previously the middle class and beyond - will find themselves ships without a port so to speak. What was once commonplace in America will become scarcer and scarcer; what you once took for granted will become expensive and out of reach for more and more people. People will consolidate too, moving back home or into communal living where there may be just one working person for several people or even families. The party is over for mass consumption unless you can afford it. A lot of people will just "go away," the fat cats hope, and they don't care if that means moving in with the parents or becoming homeless or even dying. The elites just want the useless eaters to go away - unless you are of some benefit to them they have no interest in you whatsoever. And who's to say that's wrong in light of the fact that it seems as a nation we have embraced a dog-eat-dog, market-based, deregulated political/economic philosophy since Reagan, a philosophy that removes social responsibility from the equation and replaces it with a laissez-faire free-for-all cowboy capitalism? If this is not what you wanted, why did you vote for it?

And of course, it's not going to change now. This is the entrenched system we have so you better get used to it. In the last 30 years, pretty much all the checks and balances that were put in place in more level-headed times to protect the common good have all but vanished; trying to put humpty dumpty back together again, well fuhgeddabout it - especially in a country where the very dispossessed themselves are chanting "government is the problem" at Tea Party rallies. If government is the problem, then that means all that's left is the private sector to represent your interests. Good luck with that.

This is Private Property

Hey, you there, yeah You! Whattya think you're doing? This is Private Property! I've got the law on my side and politicians in my pocket, a fine American to be sure. The borders are drawn, lines not to be crossed, behave yourself and act civilized for God's sake. Otherwise, there'll be hell to pay!