The US and internal implosion?

[Trytostaydead]

Does anyone think the US government is heading towards a major crisis in at least the next 50 years where it's going to require a major overhaul?

Or what do you think will/might trigger a series of violent and/or non-violent protests or revolutions that would require drastic change?

[Knife]

Does anyone think the US government is heading towards a major crisis in at least the next 50 years where it's going to require a major overhaul?

Or what do you think will/might trigger a series of violent and/or non-violent protests or revolutions that would require drastic change?

Um, NO. And out of curiosity, why?

[Stormbringer]

I think the US has some serious problems to work out (the Social Security disaster, the two party train wreck, etc) but I hardly think it'll be an implosion. There probably will be some protests, maybe even riots, but right now I highly doubt it'll turn into more than that.

[Trytostaydead]

Um, NO. And out of curiosity, why?

Not planning on inciting an armed revolt, if that's what you're thinking. But Emperor TryToStayDead DOES have a nice ring to it. But I was just thinking, more and more we're given the choice of the lesser of two evils.. and at such a rate, it gets eviler and eviler. Though specifically, I was just reading up on everyone jumping ship, etc, etc.

If no implosion, definite major overhauls are needed.

[Knife]

Not planning on inciting an armed revolt, if that's what you're thinking. But Emperor TryToStayDead DOES have a nice ring to it. But I was just thinking, more and more we're given the choice of the lesser of two evils.. and at such a rate, it gets eviler and eviler. Though specifically, I was just reading up on everyone jumping ship, etc, etc.

If no implosion, definite major overhauls are needed.

I think civil discourse has ebbed some in the last decade or so, but it does tend to ebb and flow. Ten years from now it might just very well be very polite in politics.

But ideology and the ideologues have always been around and will always be around. The choice of two evils has pretty much been the choice forever, and is indicitive of the system.

To be electable, you have to apeal to a great many, this tends to water down people and you get bland choices aligned with ideology.

I'm not sure exactly what 'major overhauls' you have in mind or what they could be, but the system gets tweaks every cycle, some stay others don't. I guess it depends on what you call 'major'.

All in all, I really don't see much going on that already isn't. There are protests now on damn near everything. Major changes are always sugested. Shit keeps on moving.

[Joe]

Social Security will dry up, but it probably won't be an overnight thing, hopefully it will be gradual and people will have time to adjust. Retiring at 65 will be a thing of the past, of course, as it should be.

[Straha The Stoner]

we could see the USA splitting on cultural and political grounds We'd get a liberal nation in new england,a rust belt nation,a midwest populist nation,a southern nation,texas,mormon country,a libertarian rocky moutnains nation and a socialist california nation.

[The Aliens]

But I was just thinking, more and more we're given the choice of the lesser of two evils.. and at such a rate, it gets eviler and eviler.

That assumes your country is going to be a two-party system forever. At some point, they'll corss past a line where people say "I don't like either of these two parties anymore," and a third-party candidate will win- or at least make a respectable showing sowing the seeds for further reform. There are problems to work out, but a massive, John Titor-style implosion? Don't count on it.

[Joe]

we could see the USA splitting on cultural and political grounds We'd get a liberal nation in new england,a rust belt nation,a midwest populist nation,a southern nation,texas,mormon country,a libertarian rocky moutnains nation and a socialist california nation.

Extremely unlikely, interview Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers and it's likely you'll find that nearly all of them identify with their country first and their region second.

[Stormbringer]

Split the WW1 tangent

[Natorgator]

I think civil discourse has ebbed some in the last decade or so, but it does tend to ebb and flow. Ten years from now it might just very well be very polite in politics.

It's like a pendulum, the conservatives won't dominate political discourse forever - people are eventually going to get tired of the shit-flinging.

And Joe, what the fuck is so bad about retiring at age 65?

[Gil Hamilton]

Social Security will dry up, but it probably won't be an overnight thing, hopefully it will be gradual and people will have time to adjust. Retiring at 65 will be a thing of the past, of course, as it should be.

Why is it a good thing that people have to work for all of their natural lives and not be able to retire, especially considering that many Americans physically won't be able to work effectively or at all at that age and up. Particularly since no job is going to want to hire the elderly or hold on to them, especially when there is a nearly endless supply of college aged people who can do the job vastly more effectively.

[Stormbringer]

Social Security will dry up, but it probably won't be an overnight thing, hopefully it will be gradual and people will have time to adjust. Retiring at 65 will be a thing of the past, of course, as it should be.

Why is it a good thing that people have to work for all of their natural lives and not be able to retire, especially considering that many Americans physically won't be able to work effectively or at all at that age and up. Particularly since no job is going to want to hire the elderly or hold on to them, especially when there is a nearly endless supply of college aged people who can do the job vastly more effectively.

Actually, at most white collar job being 65 isn't going to matter that much. It's blue collar sort of jobs that it's going to be a problem at.

[Joe]

And Joe, what the fuck is so bad about retiring at age 65?

Because it's unsustainable. Society (and by society, I mean younger generations, including mine) can't afford to pay for people retiring at 65 and then living on for many years forever.

[Trytostaydead]

Actually, at most white collar job being 65 isn't going to matter that much. It's blue collar sort of jobs that it's going to be a problem at.

Agreed, in a lot of jobs, especially the high-brow stuff, with age comes wisdom until senility or death.

[EmperorMing]

Just out of curiosity, *who* are the people that are jumping ship?

[Murazor]

Because it's unsustainable. Society (and by society, I mean younger generations, including mine) can't afford to pay for people retiring at 65 and then living on for many years forever.

And the solution is...

...if somebody works it out, tell me. I will be very glad to steal the idea and win the Nobel.

Seriously, the reduction of the young generations is going to be a really fucked up problem in a couple of decades.

[BlkbrryTheGreat]

Excessive Public Debt, Excessive Private Debt, and the excessive devaluation of the dollar (which is a symptom of the first two problems) are all problems that could lead to the suggested "implosion".

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Excessive Public Debt, Excessive Private Debt, and the excessive devaluation of the dollar (which is a symptom of the first two problems) are all problems that could lead to the suggested "implosion".

None of these problems would lead to an implosion in the United States. The global economies are too interconnected to allow such nonsense to happen. The worst that could happen to the United States is a sort of gradual decline where it eventually finds itself a big, bloated second-world nation with little actual signifigance in the world.

About the only thing that could cause the United States to fall apart and collapse drastically is if an asteroid struck the Earth and excavated a 200 mile wide crater whose epicenter was Washington D.C.

[Jeremy]

Ha ha I know your secret.