We don’t have 10 years; we may not even have 5. Whatever slack we had in the system has been spent by Obama or handed over to the international banking system.
If I had to bet money, I'd say five. The reason I hedge my bets is that we're still on the tail end of the American superpower era. It's still within our power for a (seemingly) major restructuring that buys us a little more time. With the right political leadership operating under a mandate of panicked citizens, we could make some (seemingly) drastic changes within certain margins. It could become a controlled descent rather than a jarring crash.
Even under that rosy scenario, a 20-30 year decline, where senior programs and all other entitlements are fully supported, simply isn't remotely viable. It's just not. Anyone that's expecting our current system to be running past 2016 is kidding themselves as to how much trouble we're in, or how most Americans are going to react once sh!t starts getting real.
“We don’t have 10 years; we may not even have 5. Whatever slack we had in the system has been spent by Obama or handed over to the international banking system.”
Cloward and Piven must be extremely joyful to see the fruits of their plan.