United States | News & Politics

That's the thing a lot of people don't understand about the collapse. It's not a singular event that happens overnight. It's a gradual process where a million different little things get out of tune every day. People turn on the news and see a few extra disasters happen, they go to the store and see a few less items available, they go to fill up and see the price go up a few cents.

Day to day nothing really changes dramatically, but all of the problems add up and reinforce each other. Higher energy prices translate to higher input costs for businesses. These translate to more expensive goods at the stores. More expensive goods translate to reduced consumer spending. Reduced consumer spending translates to businesses closing down and unemployment rising. And so on, and so forth. At some point the whole system just grinds to a halt, and that's when most people start to recognize that the collapse is indeed happening.