socialmedian: Bad Times, Boom Times

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Bad Times, Boom Times

Source: Laws of Necessity

Oct 16, 2009

Summary

The Soviet breakdown in the 1990s had some peculiar advantages to the U.S. dysfunctionality. Bloated bureaucracies move slowly, and are therefore slow to die. Long bread-lines force people to consider backup lans, like kitchen gardens.

From "Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects (2008), Orlov identifies the ingredients of what he calls "superpower collapse soup" -- a severe shortfall in the production of crude oil, a worsening foreign-trade deficit, an oversized military budget, and crippling foreign debt -- and argues that his adopted country, with its "American-style Potemkin villeges" and "highly compensated senior lunch-eaters," is not only vulnerable but likely to fare worse. ("Make no mistake about it: this soup will be served, and it will not be tasty!") "Now we're in hospice care," he told me. "The bailouts you see can be viewed as ever bigger doses of morphine for a patient that's not long for this world."

...three basic cultural categories: "back-to-the-land types," united in their opposition to industrial agriculture; "peak ...Read the full article

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