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Yes, I've just read that medicare/soc.sec liabilites are projected to top 44 Trillion $ as the boomers start to retire. For a comparison, the total US Fed debt is about 7 Trillion $. Just how the Feds expect to get the money to pay for this, I don't know. My guess is they will try to float more bonds to cover this, but where will the money come from to buy all these bonds? It will take very high interest rates to coax enough money into such a large offering. A better guess is that they will do a combination move: cut entitlements/raise taxes/print money. Either way, we will end up like the 16th century Spanish. Bankruptred into poverty. And all the hand wringing by the Fed Reserve about Deflation...

Hmm sounds more like a giant revolt will occur, wherein the young will kill the old.

Reminds me of the Star Trek episode where once people turned 60 on a certain planet(or was it 50?) they had to submit to ritual suicide to prevent themselves from becoming a burden on society.

You must compare the empires before you estimate the costs. US can easily afford it's military spending. If you look at the case of Afghanistan, you notice we are not trying, in anyway, to administer that country - where the costs are very high. Even in Iraq - with its oil money, we are utilizing a relatively small amount of manpower. (Unfortunately we couldn't get by as cheaply as we hoped).

US dominance in tech and space should remain unchallenged as long as our administrations recognize the priority. (China understands this and that is why Clinton was so stupid - Loral, Lippo grp et al - practically giving away some of our strategic advantage.)

Remember those debt projections are very similar to those made during the Reagan yrs - things worked out fine once the economy rebounded - largely because of the fall of the Soviets. Hopefully we can resolve the Arab/Israel war and destroy the impetus for this Islamist/US war. If ended, the world econ will grow at a much better rate.