This is such tripe. If you look at actual government collapses, like the USSR, Argentina, Zimbabwe, etc. etc. you will notice a trend. Nothing really changes, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the currency gets trashed and replaced and old obligations (pensions, SS) get eliminated. You are making a near-fatal mistake in assuming the only kind of collapse will be a slow-descent currency or banking-related failure. If that's the case, then you're correct. But in all of those cited examples, strong external nations retained their integrity, infrastructure, and political stability. This is not likely to occur again, especially if America, the planetary anchor, goes Tango Uniform.
New Madrid super-quake? Seattle tsunami? Planet-wide mutated super-flu? Jericho-style domestic nuke(s)? Solar or man-made EMP? Or how about a simple banking network failure or cyber attack that causes SS and welfare payments to be delay for *two weeks*? Or Monkey Boy is proven to be inelligible and every city with a Martin Luther King Jr. Street goes up in screaming flames?
We are, at any moment, two meals or one CBS news broadcast from anarchy.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
We are, at any moment, two meals or one CBS news broadcast from anarchy. It sure feels that way sometimes : ( And some of your scenarios would play out that way.
But and this is a big but : ) The most likely scenario won't play out that way. We are watching the collapse play out right now. California is broke. The Federal government would be broke right now if they couldn't print money. This is an excruciatingly slow process, until the final collapse.
But our society isn't going to collapse, it will be transformed. How? I have no clue, except that it will be broken up regionally (most likely based on energy grids). The only thing I am positive of is that there will not be an armed rebellion. There will be no one to rebel against.
People with assets will be the ones to benefit.