Cloward-Piven plan assumes that the federal government would even survive in the context of a collapse. Sorry, folks, but that doesn’t seem to be the way it works. When big countries collapse, they collapse back down onto their more easily-managed internal borders. Yugoslavia, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Georgia, Azerbaidjan, and on and on. I see no reason to assume that a financial collapse would increase the power of the federal government. Quite to the contrary - if we get something like, say, a 2008 financial crisis on steroids, it will be places like Texas and the Dakotas and Alaska that will be holding all the cards. The federal government will be vilified. Power will devolve, from DC to the State capitals, from the State capitals to the counties, and perhaps most importantly, from Wall Street to Main Street. Cloward-Piven is just another leftist fantasy, IMHO. When SHTF, nobody will care much about what DC says about anything, and their worthless money won’t be accepted. The States and localities will step in. I say bring it on.
Great post.