The Collapse of the United States

The current rage on the Internet seems to be predicting the collapse of the United States, James Kunstler is highlighting an amusing take on that subject by Russian émigré Dimitri Orlov comparing the US to the Soviet Union and the usually positive Tech Central Station is schilling for Empire, a gloomy little novel of a contemporary American civil war by Orson Scott Card. The question is do I believe in this stuff or not?
The answer is yes and no, I believe the United States will decline and its position will quite probably collapse but not in the way these people predict. I seriously doubt an American Civil War is in the cards but Orson Card Scott seems to think so. In particular he believes the Far Left could launch a violent assault on our government. Probably farfetched but Card, as science fiction writers go is no right winger. His books have a definitely liberal slant, so paranoia about the Far Left from him is something to be examined. I have to admit the American Far Left scares me it is socialistic, fascistic, elitist and undemocratic in a way I .
Orlov’s rant is more amusing, he thinks the US may collapse like the Soviet Union, I think the British Empire is a better example. Like Imperial Britain America is a capitalistic and militaristic society with limited resources. Like Imperial Britain America runs the world but is paranoid about its position and potential rivals namely China.
Britain didn’t slide into poverty and third world hell because of its’ decline. Modern Britain seems to be richer and a better place for citizens to live than ever. It seems to work economically when other European countries don’t and it functions in the modern world when countries like France don’t. Britain has even preserved some of its military power in interesting ways.
Even the partial collapse of British government in the 1970s wasn’t a bad thing the crash of the British welfare state and regulatory regime cleared the way for the British economic revival of the 1980s and 1990s. The collapse of the Chinese Communist state in the 1970s cleared the way for the modern Chinese economic miracle. So the partial collapse of American government might not be a bad thing. The collapse of bureaucratic government opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurs and in the long run increases opportunity and prosperity.
Still, the collapse of government was a big thing to the people of New Orleans when they needed a government and it wasn’t there for them. Note Wal-Mart was there for the people of New Orleans when Uncle Sam wasn’t and it is now being punished for that transgression.
So a collapse of the US government or political system might not be a bad thing. A collapse of the US economy however, would be a bad thing. The last time that happened in 1929 many average Americans went hungry.