How close now are we to total economic collapse in the US?

[KillCapitalism]

Poll question: How close now are we to total economic collapse in the US?

I was talking this topic over with a few people at lunch today and we all seemed to be agreeable that with conditions the way they are now, total collapse will happen at the end of Bush's watch (6 to 12 months). They will do all they can to delay until '09, but the dam will burst before then. I'm just wondering how close DU thinks we are with the dollar in free fall, China planning on "diversifying" it's investments (dollar dumping), the continued housing market woes, and $100 crude prices? It could end up being worse than '29 I have a feeling...I have read threads on here of people stocking up on items to prepare for the worst and I used to disregard them for the most part, but now stocking up a bit doesn't seem like a bad idea.

[NewJeffCT]

1. How about somewhere between 3 years and never?

I don't see it happening within the next 5-10 years. If our economy collapsed, so would China, Japan, Korea, India and many others.

[izquierdista]

6. That doesn't follow

When the bum who can't pay his bar tab anymore has to leave, that doesn't mean that the party stops. The U.S. stopped being the engine of world economic growth a while ago. All they do now is drive up the price of oil and export war.

If the dollar sinks below the waves, expect China and India to find new markets. They have a growing middle class and those people will buy the products the U.S. can no longer afford. The U.S. is on its way to becoming a big agricultural colony for the rest of the world, exporting corn and soybeans and being left in the dust in other areas. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[Virginia Dare]

2. Have you ever known anyone who survived the Depression..

to say it could never happen again?

My grandparents' generation, great aunts and uncles always kept food and necessities stocked up, always kept plenty of cash available, and used credit minimally. They always lived within their means.

[PassingFair]

3. I thought we were going down 2 years ago.

They have managed to prop things up this long.
Maybe they can prop things up indefinitely.

I am weary of being "Chicken Little".

They do what they want. They print money. They just make shit up as they go along.

[magellan]

14. They can't prop things up indefinitely

Their tools are becoming more limited with each passing day. The big one was printing money. The amount of money printed by the Fed this year is up 14% over last year. They can deny it all they want but this results in inflation which real people feel. And when Mr. & Mrs. America stop their spending spree, the last leg holding up this farcical economy collapses.

Look out below, Amerika is going over the cliff.

[Win]

4. sick markets

today - Tues 11/7 - the markets look bad - futures opened down a lot, the dollar is in free-fall.
Could be we're at the tipping point.. Ask me again tomorrow.

[nightrider767]

5. A Total Collapse?

I don't think there will be a total collapse. I think we will sink into a deep recession.

This country won't look the same as it does today, that's for certain. I think it'll be along the lines of the Great Depression.

Wall Street will be the first to fall. I even see signs of it happening now. Right now the market is in a general decline, with short recovery attempts, trading on nothing. Look for high volume days and a couple a weak rallies and at some point, the market won't have it's rally day and it will collapse.

[glowing]

7. No, the green revolution is about to turn this devastation around.

People aren't waiting for FDR initiatives, they are taking them themselves. Anyone with anything to say in regaurds to their stocks ought to be switching into alt. energy sources. It may not be a huge money maker right now... but 5 yrs from now, itll be huge (think apple back when it was just a fruit).... What is going down is the old, oil monarchy. That's why they are chomping at the bits for more war... It will keep the Green Revolution 7 to 10 yrs out, rather than happening now.

[Lilith Velkor]

8. Fuck if I know. n/t

[lonestarnot]

9. Money on 6 months.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. The Reaganite "borrow and spend" chickens are coming home to roost.

Total collapse? I think it will be a long, slow, decline in living standards as the overdue bills eat away at everything.

Empires rise and fall. The American Empire is unique only in it's brevity.

[cherokeeprogressive]

11. Aren't we already in collapse? Didn't the stock market lose half its value on 9/21/2007?

Oh wait, that prediction never came true, did it?

Too big. Too broad. Too far reaching. Never happen.

[KillCapitalism]

12. kick n/t

[The2ndWheel]

13. Whenever cheap energy ain't cheap

Also, whenever that cheap energy isn't continuously increasing in supply.

Now, we had it with the oil. Concentrated, dense, and full of carbon. That was the equal and opposite reaction to our action. We got to use the good stuff, the stuff that gave us all our rights and wealth, but we've polluted the planet because of it. Nothing comes for free.

If we use more of the planets energy, that means less energy for the rest of life. Since we will do whatever we have to in order to sustain the unsustainable, then nobody should be shocked when we make things worse(it doesn't matter what alternative energy source we use, if we harness it for ourselves on ever increasing scales, we're going to make things worse).

Without the constant input of more and more energy, we're always at the edge of collapse. Either the cheap energy isn't cheap, or we destroy the environment in the quest for more energy for ourselves. The cheaper energy is, and also the more expensive it is, the more we destroy the environment. It's crazy, but that's what our structures do.

How close? I'd say days at any given moment. That's why we can't stop. We have to destroy our habitat in order to survive.

[Imperialism Inc.]

15. It certainly can happen again but I don' t think it is going to any time soon.

Certainly not within the next 3 years. Then, I suppose it depends on what "total collapse" means.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

16. "total" economic collapse? never. DE-flation (without a 'pop')? now. nt

[defendandprotect]

17. I'd only be guess; but I'm pretty sure we will be paying for this THEFT of our Treasury for decades

even if we manage to hang on to our Constitution and get the criminals out office ---

WOW --- what a house-cleaning will have to be conducted --- !!!!