http://www.metafilter.com/tags/newdepression Posts tagged with 'newdepression' at MetaFilter. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:08:53 -0800 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:08:53 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/77057/The%2DFive%2DStages%2Dof%2DCollapse <a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47157">Second Great Depression? We should be so lucky.</a> Or so Dmitry Orlov says. Orlov, an engineer who watched the collapse of the Soviet Union, argues that the United States is well into a similar process of collapse. In Orlov's model, collapse is divided into five stages: financial, commercial, political, social and cultural. The first one is currently happening, and the next two are guaranteed to follow; as for cultural collapse, that happened a long time ago, but people were to narcotised by consumerism to notice. And things look set to get very, very dire indeed, with runaway hyperinflation, shortages, the breakdown of political institutions, the fragmentation of the US, and, if the "social collapse" stage is reached, roaming gangs and ethnic cleansing. tag:metafilter.com,2008:site.77057 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:08:53 -0800 collapse financialcrisis newdepression society usa wd2 acb