queencitybuckeye;1452504 wrote:No one alive today will see a total collapse of the economy.

I don't necessarily disagree. But I also don't think it would take a total collapse to cause some major civil unrest.

justincredible;1452805 wrote:I don't necessarily disagree. But I also don't think it would take a total collapse to cause some major civil unrest.

I guess that would depend on the specifics of what one means by collapse.

No total collapse...just a global migration into a 2 class society as Marx predicted. You will always have a bourgeoisie, and the proletariat group will continue to grow.

I am concerned at a few major things. Wages are less than they've ever been as part of the GDP, people are working less than ever, the labor force participation rate is very low, when people become unemployed they are staying so for a long time, self employment is low and no one is really buying houses yet.

However I think America's biggest problem is what we see in this part of the country. You know how to make money? By making things, yet our manufacturing employment is as low as it was right before WW2. It's products that make the real money, it's why this nation was absolutely rolling when Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh were turning out item after item. The biggest profits are made in the business of creating things, if we returned a lot of jobs back to America our country would absolutely soar.

IMO the worst thing I am seeing right now about this recovery is that our standard of living is not growing back. Average middle class families have so much more than they did in the 70s, however now it's to a point where people had more in 2006 than they do now. I just paid $100 a night at a top resort in Northern Michigan getting unlimited golf and a breakfast every morning to boot. A mid 90s RV can be bought for $10k, a 20' bass boat can be had for $4k that's nice. A nice 1500 sq ft house in a solid neighborhood will only run you about $110-130k. It just seems everything is so cheap anymore because no one can afford the luxuries, and that's really the thing that separates our country from the rest. It's why when I sail to the Canadian mainland every year the only boats there are basically ours. As time goes on however it seems people are starting to have less and less