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I saw a thread a few minutes ago involving how Americans are falling behind on credit card payments at alarming rates. This makes me wonder how secure our economy really is. By the time I get my Social Security payments, if the system is even still functioning at all, I will most likely receive less than 1/4 of what I put into it. Our economy at the moment also is not backed by any hard money (gold, silver, etc.). We have also been facing ridiculous inflation and the dollar is headed down the path to being worth next to nothing. How long do you think there is until a complete collapse?

I'd say definitely within 3 years. Really depends on our overseas investors with major holdings in US dollars such as bonds.
Throughout the middle east, there's $3,500 billion in bonds and various assets.
Telegraph: Fears of dollar collapse
South Korea has a smaller stake in US bonds, I'd see them follow suit if the majority of middle east countries decide to dump theirs'.
Iran has said they don't have confidence in the dollar.
Countries (IE: Russia, China) have been shifting away from the dollar for trades in goods such as oil in recent years in favor of the Euro or their local funds. Whenever the countries which have a major stake in US funds get scared enough to drop everything and convert it into Euros, is when we will see the biggest impact.

I would say once inflation goes far enough that we wouldn't be able to trade with other countries because they would no longer accept the dollar as currency at any exchange rate. Without trade and anything to back our money, our economy would be crushed.

I think it'll happen this year. For sure.

Hm...With Bush still in office for the vast majority of this year and nobody to undo his doings, it is entirely possible, although I'm not sure it would happen so soon. My main concern is that whoever is in office next may not be adequate to fix our economy. Also, it is not easy to undo years of damage in such a short amount of time.

I cannot see how the American economy can really sustain itself for too much longer. The national debt has gone 'through the roof' and it doesn't look like there is any progress towards arresting this growing debt.

I look at the way people spend money and it really astounds me. People live, for the most part, way beyond their means. Most of my friends don't have savings that could carry them past two or three months should something happen to their income flow. It is really quite frightening to consider that this liberal attitude towards money is so widespread.

I'm certainly not a rich man. But being the product of Eastern European parents who emigrated to the US after WWII, I have had some rather rigorous lessons about money management deeply ingrained. If I don't have the money, I just don't buy it. I simply do without.

Unfortunately, these days it would seem that the financial attitudes that I hold are considered to be draconian. These days, people simply buy whatever it is that their hearts desire and they just "put it on the card". Don't these folks realize that they will all eventually have to "pay the piper?".

Eventually debts will have to be paid. And so it goes on the national and international scale. At some time, the debts will have to be paid. The "books" will have to be balanced. What is frightening is that I am old enough to have at least heard "tales of the great depression" from people who actually went through it. Those were hard times!

At the present time, we are seeing what I believe to be the precursor to a new global depression. Just look at the increasing levels of home foreclosures and bankruptcies (even though recent legislation made it more difficult to declare a bankruptcy). This is just the tip of the iceberg!

I can foresee a time in the not too distant future when hard times, as experienced during the 20's, will once again be common place. People will lose their homes, factories and buisness will close and unemployment will be widespread. The question is "when will a national or international 'financial correction' -- or depression -- occur?" In my own guess, I would have to say that I would not be all to surprised if things got really tough within the next four years.

I know that some people will say that I'm being optimistic in saying that we still have four years before a major downturn and even disruption will occur in the economy but that is my opinion. Thanks to creative bookkeeping and a global desire on the part of our creditors, this growing global debt will be kept at bay for as long as possible. However, it can only be held back for so long. At some point, the debt will grow far beyond the ability to repay it. At that point, all it will take is for one defaulted payment and the whole economy will collapse like a house of cards in a windstorm.

My great-grandmother, who is 90 and still alive, experienced the Depression firsthand. I did not call it the Great Depression because, compared to what is to come, it is nothing. With our current "War on Terrorism" in Iraq and other middle-eastern countries, we are spending money like we can pull it out of our asses. It will all eventually catch up to us and we will have to repay it, whether it is in the next few years or the next few generations. With Bush in office right now, we are going to need somebody very strong in office after him to pull us through this in the coming years. If our economy crashed, all our money and savings is stored in electronic form. Meaning it would essentially cease to exist. Without gold and "hard cash" to back our savings, we would be pretty much screwed if that happened. Our prices are going up coupled with the value of our money falling fast. So I guess we will just have to see how long it takes for the inevitable to happen.

I'm not an American, nor have I ever lived there. I also don't like their goverment, but citizens themselves tend to be allright. Anyway, these are some of the reasons my opinion might be biased.. Nevertheless, here we go.

Large part of american economical growth is based on goverment putting enormous amounts of money into military-industrial complex. It causes prices of stocks to rise, giving money to people who have invested in those stocks, and at the same time depletes nation from money. When wars are over and this bubble collapses as incomes for that part of industry are no longer enormous, stocks will go down and rich, average and other people will lose money, and nation has already been run out of money because of this artificial economical boost.

What happens when unemloyment comes is something not very pleasant. I live in Finland, which is a socialist democracy and a well known wellfare state. Our goverment almost ran out of money during depression of early 90's as we had to pay social security for people who were without a job, but it nevertheless managed to do that.

That caused several factors to come into play. One factor is preventing of widespread terror, crime and things that people generally tend to do when they want food and have no money. USA has no such system in place which would ensure that people do not riot, some other countries do. That causes _serious_ nationwide problems that just don't go away by shooting. Its evolution, folks, people *will* get food if they have no money, no matter what they have to do for it.

We as a country are already in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt, more than the mind can even comprehend. It is not even possible to repay this. Americans and America are in severe debt on so many different levels that I believe our economy has to get worse before it can get any better. Whoever is our president next definitely does not have their work laid out for them and they will have to do a hell of a job. In response to you not liking our government, rawsom, at the moment I'm right there with you.