

The 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US (2006) - yuvadam
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2006-12-04/closing-collapse-gap-ussr-was-better-prepared-collapse-us?2014

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methodover
So this strikes me as complete shit.

The GULAG system is nothing like the United States justice system.

The United States political system is not incapable of reform. Reform is
_hard_ , but not impossible. In fact, that's the whole point of our system of
government -- it facilitates reform. That's why the Supreme Court exists.
That's why we have elections. Look at the evolution of rights for black
people, or gay people, or women's rights. Look at how we started a stupid war,
championed by one party, and then how that party got booted out of power once
the public realized the casus beli was totally invalid.

The United States clearly is not a utopia. We have problems, quite alot of
them. But to say that we're pretty much the USSR is completely ridiculous.

And the latter half of the essay -- am I being trolled? Is this actually
serious?

------
xrange
Compare and contrast:

>Slide 18 Energy -- US: Dwindling Domestic Production

vs.

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-04/u-s-seen-as-
biggest...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-04/u-s-seen-as-biggest-oil-
producer-after-overtaking-saudi.html)

------
yuvadam
Previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6118861](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6118861)

I'd be interested to see more discussion on this topic, maybe others as well.

------
merrua
An interesting essay.

~~~
merrua
I would suspect the economically stable neighbours is not fully abscent
though. As if the internet networks is kept up, the internet will allow people
to work for overseas companies. I doubt we will ever end up seeing any of this
play out. Since it would hurt economically many countries if the usa economy
completely fell down.

