And the truth is, even though we have indeed markedly declined, we're not at risk for total collapse at this moment.
China, unfortunately, is, and the problems may begin to happen sooner than we think. The housing & industrial bubble, demands for more wages, and an ever increasing amount of discontentment making itself known over there, and many other things are slowly, but surely, combining to create the perfect storm.
If China DOES change in time, then it will likely be able to weather the coming difficulties without much serious long-term trouble. But if not, and if the nation's elite continue to try to preserve this faux-Marxist(Mussolinian corporate fascist is what it really is, make NO mistake)system that's been in place for the past few decades, then I'm afraid that China's collapse may be quite inevitable(and possibly extremely bloody at that!). And if that comes to pass, the short-term effects, sadly, will likely make the recession of '08 look like a cakewalk, and that's just on the economic side of things.
TBH, the powers that be would LOVE for China as it exists today to be the next superpower; it's their ultimate model for what they'd like to see implemented in the rest of the world; I think the only major difference here would be that, at least in today's China, a good number of the people still believe, sincerely, that they're a benevolently governed socialist society. But in America, it would instead be operated under a Teabaggeresque Randian shadow, and with Teabaggers as our role models. And many of us would know the terrible truth, which might make our situation all the more deplorable.
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