[Southack]

You can actually look at places where economies *have* collapsed to see how people will behave, such as Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Argentina.

It's unlikely to get worse than what those people saw.

Moreover, a large collapse will be at least somewhat incremental...you'd see one area fall before another...and be able to learn how people are going to react to this new crisis.

But other than the above, most of the apocalyptic fantasy is that suddenly we are free men again...with no burdensome government and corporate rules...living as rugged individuals instead of as a collective.

A pleasant fantasy, but the experiences of Zimbabwe and Argentina suggest different realities.

[ClearCase_guy]

Moreover, a large collapse will be at least somewhat incremental...you'd see one area fall before another...

I'm not so sure. With our relience on national trucking and food distribution, the national electric grid and with such widespread use of credit cards and electronic banking -- I think it's possible that it would all come crashing down at once.