An Interesting Comparison of the Soviet and American Economies

Now I may have mentioned that I read James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency a while back, where Kunstler outlines his predictions concerning the collapse of the current American way of life after the effects of peak oil escalate. And you may have even picked up a copy of his book and read it, at which point you said, "Hogwash!", or maybe even, "Apocalypto!". To each his own, I say. Let everyone come to their own conclusion.

So, with that in mind, I present to you a link to an interesting essay by a Russian, Dmitry Orlov, who makes a comparison between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the possible future collapse of the American Empire. Again, draw your own conclusions. What I found compelling about his argument is how the chaos and redundance of the Soviet system, combined with plenty of energy supplies, cushioned the shock of their empire's downfall. The systems of barter and local, household food production, combined with state housing, softened the blow. In my opinion, these kinds of simple, local economic systems allowed much of the American population, especially the rural one, to survive the world financial crisis of the Great Depression in the last century. The problem today, I think, is that if such a collapse should occur, the number of people who can switch over to producing their own food is greatly reduced. Indeed, for even much of the American farm population (or what is left of them!), procuring food means a trip to the supermarket.

The Amish may be the only group of people in America where peak oil will go unnoticed.