It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.
The government was forced to print money in order to pay its bills, causing domestic prices to rise rapidly. Faced with hyperinflation, Washington took recourse in terminating Social Security and Medicare and followed up by confiscating the remnants of private pensions. This provided a one-year respite, but with no more resources to confiscate, money creation and hyperinflation resumed.
Organized food deliveries broke down when the government fought hyperinflation with fixed prices and the mandate that all purchases and sales had to be in US paper currency. Unwilling to trade appreciating goods for depreciating paper, goods disappeared from stores.
Washington responded as Lenin had done during the “war communism” period of Soviet history. The government sent troops to confiscate goods for distribution in kind to the population. This was a temporary stop-gap until existing stocks were depleted, as future production was discouraged. Much of the confiscated stocks became the property of the troops who seized the goods.
Goods reappeared in markets under the protection of local warlords. Transactions were conducted in barter and in gold, silver, and copper coins.
Other clans organized around families and individuals who possessed stocks of food, bullion, guns and ammunition. Uneasy alliances formed to balance differences in clan strengths. Betrayals quickly made loyalty a necessary trait for survival.
Large scale food and other production broke down as local militias taxed distribution as goods moved across local territories. Washington seized domestic oil production and refineries, but much of the government’s gasoline was paid for safe passage across clan territories.
Most of the troops in Washington’s overseas bases were abandoned. As their resource stocks were drawn down, the abandoned soldiers were forced into alliances with those with whom they had been fighting.
Washington found it increasingly difficult to maintain itself. As it lost control over the country, Washington was less able to secure supplies from abroad as tribute from those Washington threatened with nuclear attack. Gradually other nuclear powers realized that the only target in America was Washington. The more astute saw the writing on the wall and slipped away from the former capital city.
When Rome began her empire, Rome’s currency consisted of gold and silver coinage. Rome was well organized with efficient institutions and the ability to supply troops in the field so that campaigns could continue indefinitely, a monopoly in the world of Rome’s time.
When hubris sent America in pursuit of overseas empire, the venture coincided with the offshoring of American manufacturing, industrial, and professional service jobs and the corresponding erosion of the government’s tax base, with the advent of massive budget and trade deficits, with the erosion of the fiat paper currency’s value, and with America’s dependence on foreign creditors and puppet rulers.
The Roman Empire lasted for centuries. The American one collapsed overnight.
Rome’s corruption became the strength of her enemies, and the Western Empire was overrun.
America’s collapse occurred when government ceased to represent the people and became the instrument of a private oligarchy. Decisions were made in behalf of short-term profits for the few at the expense of unmanageable liabilities for the many.
Overwhelmed by liabilities, the government collapsed.
Globalism had run its course. Life reformed on a local basis.
States’ secession and nullification of federal rule could start this. Washington and the beltway needs to be shut down so we can return to state and local government. The Leviathan deserves being brought to its demise. Enough is enough.
2017 is about right for the US to have reached the point of its fall from its currently precarious position as the world’s superpower. The scenarios you describe are unfortunately all too plausible. One other outcome that you did not mention will be the loss of financial support that is essential to Israel. There is no power on Earth that is not dependent on a source of sound money. The fall of the Us could be the trigger for a relative peace in the Middle East.
you forgot to mention the fate of 2.5 million in the US prison inudstrial complex who would break free. It can go either way, if the hardcore criminals are released, and we know what breeding grounds the US prisons are, crime would run amok, but if the collapse of Washington is the dawning of a new spiritual age, I would not sweat it for even a second, it would have transformative spirtiual powers and will pull people togther for a common good, the paradise will not come about, though, until the predators are held at bay or devoured by themselves in their common den.
We should be so lucky to have the federal gov collapse completely. It is only in a voluntary society where man (and woman) can be free. The coercive violence of the state is the source of all our societal ills. Violence breeds violence.
Anarchy need not be lawlessness. Much of our life is based on anarchy (absence of government control) and we like it that way. Where we live and work, who we marry. This is anarchy and we would riot if the gov decided to set up an agency to regulate our lives in these ways. To be free from our political masters could be the beginning of true freedom. Where people interact peaceably and voluntarily, not through the force and coercion of the government.
Anarchy may be a dirty word, but it is the actions of the federal government that is dirty.