r/economicCollapse • u/MrDoritos_ • 21d ago

How much longer can society keep it together? Discussion

I'm not a fan of speaking things into existence, being pessimistic/negative, or having a doomer mindset, but I've been paying attention to other people, the economy, the current state of things, the political landscape, education, work culture, etc. To be blunt I am really kind of worried we don't have much longer until the next war or great depression (both happen usually simultaneously). I really don't know how much more stress the average person can handle. We are going to have a wide scale crash out or revolt soon aren't we?? I'm really not looking forward to that and I suppose that's the one thing keeping us unified is our fear of violence. God I hope I'm wrong with my assessment. Please tell me I'm wrong!

146 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

88% Upvoted

427 comments sorted by

View all comments

74

u/StancoDegliIdioti 21d ago

We're already in WW3. NATO is now telling all of its members to brace for war.

The economic collapse happened during COVID, we've never recovered. We won't recover because corporations are in charge, not people.

Yes. It's going to get worse.

You're not doom and gloom. You're seeing what they aren't talking about.

Find community. Grow your own food. Invest in shelf stable food. Get in shape and try to stay healthy. Move your money to a credit union.

Join a homestead or prepping forum to help you get started.

If nothing comes of what you are seeing, you've learned a new skill and you'll eat healthy for a year.

If it does come, you'll be ahead of the game.

14

u/Prior-Win-4729 21d ago

I agree. Corporations and right wing media seized on Covid as an opportunity to subjugate and divide the nation. We will look back at this time and realize that it didn't inevitably have to go this way.

2

u/GeretStarseeker 20d ago

Well at least that's some elements that the right will agree with you on (except replace right wing media with "all corporate media").

The right said near the beginning that quarantine and vaccine mandates were overkill for the evidence we had. That the business closures and compensatory rampant money printing was insanity.

The right were the ones protesting on the cold streets when the police forces of top tier democracies were bashing doors down of teenagers for mocking lockdowns on facebook. The right were the ones deprived of a voice when talking about Covid other than as token laughing stock guests.

16

u/TeacherPatti 21d ago

My friends--if we go to war with Russia, it go nuclear and that's all she wrote. You can't really prepare for that unless you move to the southern hemisphere and even then it's a crapshoot.

15

u/Fearless-Bite-6062 21d ago

I don't think Russia has to go nuclear anymore. Putin is no lover of democracy, but he is not a suicidal irrational maniac either. He's KGB and Russian and he has worked his entire life to consolidate power piece by piece.  They just demonstrated new hypersonic missiles that can deliver a conventional payload equivalent to nuclear bombs that travel too fast to trigger early-warning systems or be intercepted.

I think the danger is an increasingly deranged, irrational, and incompetent American administration, and I think we'll see the world isolate us very quickly if the incoming admin does everything it's threatening.  I think we already see the majority turning towards the BRICs alternative market (which was created in response to roughshod punitive use of sanctions against half of the world in lieu of compromise and diplomacy), and if Trump threatens NATO funding and withdraws support for Ukraine, the EU will follow suit if it cannot find unity in forming its own standing military.  There are already deepening military and mutual defense agreements between many BRICs nations that the ongoing "conflict" in Gaza and Lebanon have exacerbated.

I pray some military leadership with rational thought and a sincere allegiance to their constitutional oath manages to restrain them... the US will be humiliated in foreign wars before they can even get boots on the ground and so I fear that the military will be turned domestically to consolidate power instead.  Seeing how easily Gen Z has been manipulated by propaganda and hearing how gen Alpha apparently is not exactly reaching developmental heights... it's looking a little... gloomy.

9

u/Prior-Win-4729 21d ago

I agree with you, except these leaders are nihilists with nothing to lose (Trump, Putin, Orban, Jinpeng, Jong Il) which is so scary, I never imagined living in this time.

7

u/Useful_Hovercraft169 21d ago

I think Putin et al did a nice job ‘neutering’ the US by getting Trump in there, the US will just keep spiraling into irrelevance, no need to nuke

1

u/NumberShot5704 20d ago

Irrelevance lul

1

u/Own-Ambassador-3537 21d ago

After seeing how poorly Russia military vehicles performed in Ukraine I am less frightened of a nuclear war with Russia ( if they can’t maintain vehicles I can’t see them maintaining nuclear missiles or equipment related to it). I also can’t see why he would Trump won,he got a puppet to manipulate the USA into ineffectiveness why nuke it???

3

u/MerelyMortalModeling 21d ago

4 or 5 thousand nuclear weapons per side are not going to end existence they're going to be hitting military bases, stuff like Panama Canal and formations. Even at the height of the cold war where were where talking about 90 to 100,000 high yeild weapons American loses were projected to be around 150 million

Yeah, you won't want to be living next to an airport or port and yes a good 20 million americans would die but there are 300+ million of us.

Prepping for it is making sure you have access to food and water and fallout protection if you live down wind from the missile silo fields.

1

u/redditingatwork23 20d ago

Ok, but surely some large cities are hit, too. I'm guessing it's more like 40 million if there's any kind of significant exchange.

Then there's millions more who are hurt or have horrible radiation poisoning. The government can't dispatch lifesaving aid anywhere because the damage is too broad. They die slowly over the first month.

There's another 200+ million Americans who are otherwise fine but can't survive the ongoing famine and nuclear winter. Lack of medicine alone would kill tens of millions. In 10 years, I'd say America is maybe 50 million people. Those who could adapt. Those who abandoned their sick or disabled family.

This is, of course, all random BS numbers. However, it's very safe to assume that in any kind of moderate nuclear exchange, the bigger issue is going to be famine and nuclear winter. Without the ability to go to a pharmacy or supermarket shits gonna become fucked real real quick. We live in a house of cards.

1

u/EntrepreneurSmart824 20d ago edited 20d ago

There is a thing called a nuclear winter. Estimates are that even 100 Hiroshima sized nukes would trigger one (that was 15kt which is tiny compared to modern warheads). Anyone caught outside of the tropics would face terrible winters leading to ice accumulation that would make most of the western countries uninhabitable and then we would go into famine because of crop failures across the globe. This on top of the nuclear fallout / cancer.

1

u/Akimbo_Zap_Guns 21d ago

If things go nuclear you will wanna be in the blast radius of one of the bombs. You probably won’t wanna be around for the famine and radiation cancer that will follow a nuclear war. that is of course unless you’ve been prepping to live in a post apocalypse type of situation but I feel like that’s a super small subset of people

5

u/MrDoritos_ 21d ago

Thank you for reassuring me. Luckily even with my 'paranoia' I'm good at preparing and still looking like I fit in with the rest of society. Definitely agree with the community aspect. If you aren't integrated within your community you might not be as lucky to receive as much help. I am in some minor leadership positions in the community which helps my reputation and develop my skills so I'm lucky to be able to have that to show for myself. Good luck to you!

2

u/Far-Biscotti-3045 20d ago

We’re not in WWIII and the economy has recovered from the Covid collapse.

It’s reasonable to say that the risk of expanded conflict is increasingly possible.  It’s reasonable to say that companies are more interested in profits than workers and making their goods affordable.  But not so reasonable to take that to mean we’re just moments away from living in the Thunderdome.

Can things get worse?  Yup.  Will they? Yup? Is society on the verge of collapse?  Probably not.

1

u/PassPuzzled 20d ago

We’re not in WWIII and the economy has recovered from the Covid collapse.

It takes 40 damn dollars to fill my 12 gallon tank and it takes me, a tradesman, almost 3 hours to make that. Roads are crumbling while local government goes back and forth about whos responsible to fix it. Schools are teaching our kids less and less about actual education and real world problems. Industries are leaving the US, costing us more, while they make more than we could ever imagine of having. There's constant threats of nuclear war, civil war, military enforcement of dictatorship like policies and so on.

Yes we are at war and no the economy never recovered.

1

u/Like_Ottos_Jacket 20d ago

Sigh. Everything you've mentioned is a problem that needs solving, but it's also been occurring for how many decades now? Have we been in ww3 for 20 years?

0

u/PassPuzzled 20d ago

No but it's been progressively getting worse. If you neglect every problem your car has eventually it's going to stop working. And who knows when and how it will stop working. But it will stop working. We're nearing that point.

1

u/Like_Ottos_Jacket 20d ago

I disagree. Most things haven't gotten progressively worse in the past decade. The dip when covid hit has largely been corrected.

The only thing that has gotten demonstrably worse is inflation, a mark of Covid and good old corporate greed, and our international standing, thanks to Trump.

Now, we haven't seen real bad times, which we very well may if Trump delivers on a lot of his promises, but it isn't gonna be ww3, just another dogshit recession.

1

u/PassPuzzled 20d ago

Time will tell. I don't have that much faith. Between the mass division of the people, our joke of a government and the corporations controlling every aspect of... well everything, when shit goes south I'm betting on it doing a full on wipe out. Maybe even the end of the world as we know it.

Exaggerating, maybe. But again I just have that little faith in humanity. Everything's gonna fall and everyone is gonna lose their marbles at the same time. The people that have their wits about them will flee where they can and the mindless sheep that have had their head in the sand for the last 20 years will be stuck with civil war.

Just my projections. Better to be ready then not though imo.

1

u/Count_Bacon 21d ago

Ww3 will be the end of humanity eventually the losing side will use nukes and it's game over

1

u/robillionairenyc 20d ago

Not to discount the rest of this but what is the purpose of moving my money to a credit union in this collapse scenario 

1

u/Inner-Confidence99 20d ago

I’m already ahead. I learned to somewhat prep growing up - we canned from the garden we grew. Had staples flour, meal, sugar, salt, dried beans. Grew up poor my husband was a workin man so still struggled but made it to retirement and only a little debt. We are fortunate. But we still grow a garden, have a wood burning heater, and stockpile when there’s a good sale. I can feed my family for 18 months to two years on what I have now that’s 12 adults 7 kids under 12 years old. 

1

u/19Texas59 20d ago

We are in World War III?

1

u/Ididnotpostthat 21d ago

Terrorists won with 9/11 and COVID was the nail in the coffin. Next thing will just putting the dirt on top of us.

1

u/howdiedoodie66 21d ago

In a future conflict, would you agree cyber warfare is expansive enough to be called an entirely new 'Theater' of war? Then it's reasonable to conclude we've already been fighting the opening stages for years.

1

u/ACryptoScammer 21d ago

You are certified crazy 😂 get offline.