Most people do not have a clue how bad this could get. The collapse of a specialized economy which we live in today will make the Great Depression look like a Sunday picnic. There will be less food to go around this time since we've have nowhere near the amount of people living an agrarian lifestyle as we had in the '30s.
I wish and pray there was a way to avoid it, but I don't see enough people waking up to what is about to happen to make a difference. Even Congress, in the latest budget passage, seems to have withdrawn from the fight.