The Scholarship of Collapse

Summary

July 6, 2009: The article predicts that California will experience zero infrastructure and housing growth for at least five years, resulting in a permanently smaller economy for both California and the United States. The reason for this is that the economy of the United States was built with the assumption of low energy and fuel prices, which are no longer the case in the modern world economy and unlikely to return there no matter what the US government does. Starting in 2000, attempts were made to maintain this lifestyle with economic boosts brought on by war and debt, but this is equally no longer sustainable. As a result, the importance of the United States in the world will decline, just as that of the British Empire did.

See Also

• News: Californians are sinking themselves
• News: California Won't Accept Its Own IOUs

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article

Game and Story Use

• This might herald the transition of the United States to a Cyberpunk setting.
• At the very least, this should be kept in mind for working out the geopolitics of a Twenty Minutes Into The Future setting.