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Is a Worldwide Breakdown Inevitable?

Copyright © February 1, 2016 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.


Introduction

Fictious Money Example Some people believe that a worldwide collapse of the social and political systems can be avoided if our government leaders will carefully and strategically manipulate the variables they have under their control. These people may be right. However, it is my opinion that the very best our leaders can do is to postpone the inevitable collapse, and that sooner or later the collapse will occur.

Other people believe that a worldwide economic and social collapse is going to happen in the very near future regardless of what our government leaders do. These people usually support their point of view based on a variety of factors that government leaders have no control over and that will gradually (or suddenly) result in a global breakdown.

In my opinion, it really doesn't matter what triggers the inevitable breakdown, or whether it occurs this year, or next year, or several years from now. What does matter is that when the breakdown happens it will have a catastrophic impact on every nation on the face of the earth.

The end result of the breakdown will be as follows:
  1. World War III will engulf the entire planet. No nation will be exempt from the devastation caused by the war. There are weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a variety of people in a lot of different nations all over the world. It doesn't matter which nation uses one of these deadly weapons first. It also doesn't matter which type of mass destruction weapon is employed, such as nuclear, biological, or chemical. After the first weapon of mass destruction is used then every nation will be forced to immediately respond with almost everything they have in their arsenals in order to have any chance of surviving the war.

  2. Military bases and military storehouses will be primary targets wherever they exist. Power grids will also be intentionally destroyed. Major transportation networks will be crippled. Manufacturing facilities will be destroyed. Major fresh water reservoirs will be polluted or poisoned. All paper currency and digital currency will become worthless. In this type of situation would you trade a can of beans for a small piece of pretty paper?

  3. Almost everyone will be stranded and isolated wherever they happen to be when the weapons of mass destruction are used.

  4. Civilians will start killing one another on a global scale. Some of the killing will be over scarce resources. But some of the killing will be done by evil people who simply enjoy hurting other people.


The Worldwide Breakdown

No government can afford to provide free medical care, free food, free transportation, and free housing for a significant number of their citizens. When a government spends more money each year than it receives each year, then that government is bankrupt. Sooner or later a bankrupt government will have its credit frozen and then that government will have to make some difficult decisions on how to spend whatever money they have available. If a government's income is only 60% of its annual expenses then that government will have to immediately cut its total expenses down to 60%. This would probably result in a revolution because all the people that the government had been supporting will become violently angry with the government.

In order to avoid a civilian uprising, or a revolution, a government has four basic options:
  1. War: The government can start a war with another country, or they can become a participant in a war that is already going on somewhere in the world. However, the war must be one that the government can justify to its citizens based on racial hatred, or religious prejudice, or any other sensitive issue that would be supported by a majority of its citizens. After the war has begun then the war can be blamed for the nation's economic problems. The war can also be used to eliminate a large number of young adult males that can be drafted into the military and then sent off to die in a battle that their government knows they can't win. If the war is fought within the borders of their own country then the war will destroy a lot of men that are too old to be drafted, and it will also destroy a lot of women and children. This will reduce the "surplus population," as Ebenezer Scrooge would say. And it would also significantly reduce future birth rates.

  2. Voluntary Shelters: Anyone who needs significant financial assistance will probably be encouraged to voluntarily get on a bus or on a train that will take them to a first-class government shelter with clean beds for everyone, three hot meals per day per person, plenty of clean toilet facilities, free medical care, and a huge assortment of free movies for everyone to watch. However, after a person enters the first-class government shelter they will immediately discover that they can't leave the shelter for any reason, and that dysentery, disease, despair, and death are widespread throughout the shelter, and that the average life expectancy of a very healthy person after they enter the shelter is about four weeks. The high death toll within the shelter will automatically create the necessary space for the next group of people who want their government to provide everything for free. This is a very reasonable option because it allows a government to eliminate everyone who cannot support themselves (and their government). And the government can easily disguise the high death rate by keeping very poor records of who went to each shelter and the total number of people who actually entered each shelter. With lots of shelters in different locations around the country the government cannot be expected to know where a specific person or a specific family might be. And a person's death can be easily blamed on some pre-existing medical problem (either real or fictious) that the person had when they entered the shelter, and although the medical personnel in the shelter did everything they could to save the person, the person's pre-existing medical problem was too advanced for the person to be saved.

  3. Epidemic: A disease, such as smallpox or the bubonic plague, could be released simultaneously at selected areas all across a nation. The disease will spread rapidly before anyone realizes that they are carriers of the disease. The problem with this approach is that the disease will kill poor people, rich people, and everyone in between. It will kill people who have government jobs, and police officers, and people in the military. It will kill people on welfare and it will kill people who have good jobs who contribute a significant part of their paycheck to the government in the form of taxes. Many of the people who survive the epidemic may be in poor health for their rest of their lives. Therefore a government would have to be truly desperate to do this to its own citizens. But a government may decide to do this to a foreign nation that is causing them problems. (Historical Note: The last major worldwide epidemic was the Influenza Flu Epidemic of 1918 and it began when many people could see that World War I was going to be over in a short period of time unless something very unusual happened.)

  4. Martial Law: Impose a 20 hour per day curfew in selected areas where a majority of the citizens receive a lot of welfare benefits. Anyone on the street during the 20 hour curfew will be shot on sight with no questions asked. This would be a very reasonable option for any government that has already disarmed its citizens. But it probably would not work in the United States because the number of armed families significantly outnumber the people who would be attempting to enforce marital law.


Conclusion

The worldwide breakdown will happen. But nobody knows when it will happen, including myself.

It is also possible that the breakdown may not begin during your lifetime.

However, local regional breakdowns have already begun in several nations in different parts of the world. These regional breakdowns could expand and become global this month, or a year from now, or several years from now. Trying to guess when the breakdown will become global is a waste of time, in my opinion. A better use of a person's time would be to take positive action right now to systematically prepare for the breakdown. The reason you should prepare right now is simple. A breakdown could begin in your area several months (or years) before the breakdown becomes global.

If you decide to prepare for the inevitable breakdown, then you should use common sense and you should not make emotional decisions motivated by fear. Instead you should take the time to consider all your options and you should create a survival plan that would be realistic and affordable for your family based on your family's strengths and weaknesses, and the special needs of your family members. Then you should carefully consider how you will add the major components of your survival plan into your budget on a monthly basis. This requires a lot of thought and careful planning but it is the best way to prepare for an unpredictable future.

Respectfully,
Grandpappy.


Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com

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