After reading the article referred to by Dolores, i am of the opinion that such could, indeed, be the scenario to be faced by the US and those countries closely tied to it economically.
History has lessons on this pronouncement all the way from Rome to the present day.
Resources of all nations are stretched very thinly in the economic model presently being followed by the fostering of the "Global Economic" scenario. That scenario, while seemingly a panecea of good omens, is actually, in practice, an abrogation, by individual countries, of any form of nationalism as practiced in the past.
I have to ask myself, is the abandonment of nationalism and the embracing of the economic problems of substandard economic societies worth the sacrifices that must be made by the "have" nations?
The conclusion I have arrived at is a resounding NO.
Don't get me wrong. There are people starving to death because their governments have not addressed (intentionally or unintentionally) the problems entailed in feeding millions of idle constituents who are landless, income-less and the like. Yet these governments are far from being bankrupt, have enormous natural resources which politicl prevents them from exploiting. Their populations have become, by default, dependent upon government largess for their very survival and thost government has turned a blind eye to theproblem.
One country, in particular, has allowed it's industrial and intellectual bases to be captured by other countries while it's political parties participate in in-fighting to gain the political power they see as theirs by right.
Elitism has always been with us as humans for millenia andwe still allow it to flourish in our midst. Do we deserve this phenomonen? Yes, we do, because we haven't the knowledge to combat it or we just fost it off as 'what is'.
We haven't yet realized that we, as individuals and regardless of all the allusions of "freedom of action" and "masters of our fates" are just words uttered by a few in the herd of humanity that continue to follow the "lead bell" into infinity.
Think about it. Are we truly free to be the masters of ourfates??
I think not under the present circumstances. We are still the "serfs" of the "Robber Barons" of mideavel times.
I don't like it and neither do you, but the forces are presently out of our control.
Texas Bill