I'm afraid the world is falling apart. Global inequality and poverty are growing. Wealth is increasingly concentrated in the top 1%. Areas of the United States are even resembling the 3rd world now. The Middle East situation is a quagmire from which is hard to see a way out of and getting worse. A superpower confrontation seems possible either with Russia or China. Arms trade is really massive and the threat of nuclear extinction still hangs over us. Lastly we're destroying hope for decent survival with global warming.
Covid is the only destabilizing event, and it looks as though the US system of decentralization resulted in a variety of outcomes, but overall non-destabilization.
Wildfires make the news bc they are inconvenient, but largely impact rural areas.
Hurricanes are local events that cause damage, but US building codes largely prevent loss of life. Katrina is still a once in a lifetime event due to the flooding caused by failed levees.
Political tension is nothing more than the rise of news entertainment. The two political parties are extremely similar. In 4 months or 4 years, Trump will be out of office and the news entertainment business will manufacture other controversies.
The 3 big ‘problems’/destabilizing factors in the US are, student loans, massive prison pop, a great, but vastly overpriced health care system.
We're headed towards a collapse either way, with many, many millions dying. Very possibly billions over the course of this century. Either it's a major society upheaval leading towards positive change, or it's just general societal breakdown as civilization as we know it becomes impossible. Our current political-economic system is simply not up to the challenge, so not having upheaval is not an option.
A comparatively mild collapse sooner is better than later. This really is an existential threat like we have never experienced.
Covid isn't necessarily the primary concern but one crisis among many. Arguably most civilization collapses happened in times when there were too many crises at once, that individually could be handled but all at once or in close succession become overwhelming. A current example of this would be that with climate change we face increase in temperatures causing wildfires on the west coast, deadly heatwaves in the southwest and hurricanes along the Atlantic. Due to Covid hospitals are already overwhelmed so injuries from hurricanes are harder to deal with, making not massive events worse than the sum of their parts. Combine this with governments unwilling to take action and who actively dismantle the preparations already in place and it is worth being concerned.
Calling this a prosperous time is also flawed, for who? The middle class is nearly gone, freedoms are being eroded, racial tensions are still high, the world order is destabilizing as many governments lean into more dictator-like structures. I genuinely want to understand what you see to give you hope because right now I'm failing to find much to grab onto.
If America does collapse, it will likely be for political reasons. Maybe the people in power will let it crash and burn for some misguided principle, or they will do something immensely stupid with unforeseen consequences. American economy is strong, and the society is robust enough, but there are serious risks due to the combination of dysfunctional politics and a high degree of centralization.
Are we headed for a system wide collapse (in the US, but perhaps elsewhere?).
The current environment is one of crisis mounting on top of crisis, each with increasing urgency and each never getting solved.
Just to count them
- issues of executive power concentration (pre trump even..), now alongside corruption and ignoring rule of law
- US overextended and largely illegitimately engaged militarily across the world
- mass surveillance without consent
- covid & associated economic devastation
- racial justice
- unending sense of riots, damage etc..
A friend of mine lived in East Germany when the Wall came down. I recall there was one event after another that eventually culminated in the collapse of East Germany and communism.
Is the US experiencing something similar? Not just in terms of government effectiveness but even legitimacy?
It's articles like this that really make me facepalm, shake my head and say "this isn't about whether America could survive this". America is the last of our concern. Almost ALL of the other countries on planet Earth have orders of magnitude LESS resources (in every sense of the word) than we do. Think about how likely those countries aren't going to fall into chaos. Their governments aren't equipped to deal with this sort of thing.
Arguably society is in the process of crumbling now. Jan 6th was part of that, as were the BLM protests, the anti-vax protests, the contentious school-board meetings, the constant tug-of-war between Federal/state/local/individual authorities, high inflation, supply shortages, people refusing to go back to work, etc.
(3) The wake of what will soon be millions of evictions, not to mention the current unemployment rate and the effects we're seeing on wealth inequality.
(4) On the inevitable track of climate change displacing tens of millions to hundreds of millions of people. This branch will also lead to some supply-chain and food management issues I cannot even fathom.
(5) A concerning increase in polarization and even fascism. Increasing distrust in science and decreasing certainty in our news sources.
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