What if the USA collapses?

I read the following article many moons ago, at a time when noone would even admit the USA was headed for recession, at a time no one was really paying much attention to the 'sub-prime' mess, at a time when the realities facing Americans and the world today were simply unimaginable. It was amusing soci0-economic sci-fi then.

Re-reading it today, the rich analysis of the author is simply an explanatory epitaph for the collapse of the USA lifestyle. Between the lines (and slides) are many of the home grown values and wisdom that modern consumer zombie-ism has forgotten - family, simple pleasures, neighbourly goodwill and inherent self-worth in people rather than what kind of 'stuff' they have.

These values slipped from USA culture quietly and no one seemed to take heed: now however, that which has been taken for granted may determine how well the population of the USA weathers the next three years of ghastly surprises. Those values that evaporated with decadent affluence, will now be key survival skills for the immediate future.

In this article, a native Russian compares the survival competencies of both the American and Russian culture...in slides also for those of you who like them. I believe there are points presented herein which will stick with every reader. I can see much of the Russian staple of cultural values in the Irish culture: Ireland is not far away from poverty.

The 'collapse gap' is rich with lessons for today for anyone who is listening.

What If US Collapses?
Soviet Collapse Lessons
Every American Needs To Know

by Dmitri Davydov
Sun, 2008-06-01

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am not an expert or a scholar or an activist. I am more of an eye-witness. I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is.

My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse. The rhetorical device I am going to use is the "Collapse Gap" – to go along with the Nuclear Gap, and the Space Gap, and various other superpower gaps that were fashionable during the Cold War. More here...


I don't want to leave the reader without a good thought, or picture: the predator and prey united. A chimpanzee has adopted a white tiger cub.

Maybe there is hope for us. If not...shhhhh!

More here...