Empires collapse; that's what they do. The US is an empire (proof left as an exercise to the reader :-) ). When it is going to happen and what constitutes "collapse" are harder questions to answer.

If we look at the British Empire it did not so much collapse as fizzle out as its colonies became independent and its role as a superpower was supplanted by the USA. That process started in WWI (first time that Britain needed help winning a war) and was over with the Suez crisis (first time British foreign policy was coerced by US influence).

Something similar is likely to happen with the USA as the Chinese economy exceeds it between 2020 and 2030. With all those US treasuries they will be in a position to call a lot of shots. I'm sure it's why the US doesn't already take a significant stand on the human rights issue.

Often a decline is sudden, in a punctuated equilibrium sort of way, like the collapse of the USSR. Unlikely in the case of the USA but I keep wondering whether it will come to the point where it looks at all the nuclear weapons it has and figures they must be useful for something.

Heh. Chances are, we're both wrong. Considering that there's an infinite number of random things that can happen in the future, who knows? We may even find 10 foot tall blue people on another planet someday :D.

If the global market gets flooded with U.S. Federal Reserve Notes (US currency) it does lose its vaule which jives with hyperinflation. Have you bought food recently &/or bought fuel? its goin up & up & up. if you bought food & the price remained the same from say for example last fall (2010) then you received less goods (ie: oz, quarts, etc) per item. This is another way that the companies deceive you into thinking nothin is goin on.

Our standard of living whether in the U.S. or any other modern society is only because of oil, & like I said we're reaching peak oil & the supply will deminish while the price gets higher. Inversly is what will happen when the supply of U.S. fed notes goes high, its purchasing power decreases.

I was also under the impression that ethanol fuel is an "energy negative" meaning it takes more energy into producing it than the engery it yields.

BTW 1 gallon of gas for $4.25usd will get a car about 20 miles. So thats about the same as 6-8 weeks of human labor. Oil is cheap energy, but it cant/wont last for long. Would you push your car down the road for 6 weeks to go 20 miles for $4.25usd? ;-)

Respect!

Yeah I think it's a little too complicated for anyone to make any assertive claims.

We'll see what happens. I don't foresee an immediate future where I will not be comfortable in the US though. It's probably inevitable that it'll cease to be the power that it is today, but that's just seems like historical common sense.

I was joking about the ethanol part (not knowledgeable about it to begin with). The prospects of oil, as you point out, are indeed very worrying. Unfortunately I don't see whats going to take its place. Renewables are not in a position to supply the worlds energy needs anytime soon. Natural gas might be the biggest player in a world after cheap oil but even that will run out eventually. In fact, I think we've already passed peak oil. I would hope that Helium 3 turns out to be the wonder energy source that many claim it is.

BTW I'm not trying to be pessamistic or end of the world gloomy-doomy. I'm just bringin up some facts & thoughts to consider. Get everyone to educate themself vs letting the Gov or news media tell you what is right/wrong/not happening/whats in style/economy is good. The Gov & news media do LIE & that is FACT.

Read a book (not a novel), watch a documentary, read more website forums, turn off the news (especially FOX news if you even think you have a mind of your own), educate yourself, stock up & store food + water, plant a small garden of fruits & veggies, invest in solar energy, hedge yourself against inflation. All of those last notes are not bad or harmful in any way.

Solar energy would be perfect for residential energy & small commercial, only downfall at this time is initial cost.
Google: KERS
KERS is a way to recover moving energy & store it.
Hydrogen to my understanding is also a potential candidate, but has a long way to go to get better performance + economical.

Why not just say turn off all CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, etc. They're all the same.:hmm: They're loyal only to political parties, not the people, just like the parties themselves.-.- Instead of bashing one, bash all of them b/c they're the same. Just a suggestion.

Respect & very true

Just think how much worse it could be. Even if the U.S. Govt goes bankrupt, we're still much luckier than other people.

We'll still have electricity, in some countries, most people can't get it all day long.

It's still a question of how many meals a day, not how many days of the week we get to eat.

I know I'm late to update this but I've been busy lately. So, the US gov. didn't shut down but came extremely close. The parties finally agreed on a budget cut plan and FINALLY got it throught Obama's thick skull. They call it the biggest budget cut in the history of the nation. My response: "WELL DUH!!!!! Congress was spending trillions of dollars a year. I'd imagine just cutting the budget by 10% would make it the biggest budget cut in the history of our nation."

It wasn't really a 10% cut. More like about 1%. Still though, baby steps. I'm excited about the republican-planned cut senario.

I know it wasn't a 10% cut, I was just stating the obvious with an exaggerated number.