I believe land has a value related to the economic activity it is associated with, in connection with its scarcity.  Land out in the middle of nowhere has little value, but land in a city is worth much more.  Same with land with natural resources on it, and ability to obtain the resources.  It is really hard to get around trying to magically generate value for anything, unless there is intrinsic demand for it.  If you add the provison to Say's Law, regarding supply being things people want and need, you get close to explaining things.

Hence why i said productive land.  Get farmland, pay someone to work it for you... and not only will you have a decent investment that will hold it's value mostly, you'll get money off the crop and get some food out of it...

and in a particualarly bad economy, your a king... and will be able to ensure you can feed yourself and your loved ones.

If you look into it, Most superpowers rise just as others fall. For example, after world war one, the ottoman, the german, the italian and the dutch empires all collapsed, Just as the soviet union was started to rise. The depression allowed to grow even more than the west too.

And by the 1945 (end of world war two), this was when America really started to rise, by which time the Soviet Union was really powerful. Also, the war started to destroy the 2 biggest empires , the British and French ones. So you are right, the european dominance of the world went to America and Russia.

Whenever America starts to use power and wealth, another country will take it's place. China is ALREADY getting there, as they are starting to loan out money to europe and the US, which makes them more powerful

What is fiat money?

If you really believe that the civilization is going to collapse, would you be selling stock?

Or would you be buynig non-perishable goods, gold, and guns?

Think about the source and the rationale.

Mike from Morgantown

I've always said: The more the debt crisis becomes a real problem for the US, the more the world will realize why a country that is surrounded only by water and military irrelevant countries needs a "defense" budget that is almost as huge as that of all other countries of the world combined.

Pretty much money printed by government, and issued via fiat.  It isn't backed by anything:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

What needs to happen is you have a support network in place that insures you can survive.  Merely hoarding goods, and just dumping stock, isn't going to cut it.  And you need to ask what kind of life you will have after things fall.  

As of now, I really don't own much of anything, nor do I have stocks.  I am currently trying to work on mastering contentment and develop a continued state of being positive.  I am investing in emotional stability, and stuff like that.  I wouldn't just dump stock now.

I do think gold is just a bunch of rocks also, and guns mean I do what, fight over scraps?  What is really non-perishable is skills you have, so getting skills counts.  But also, keep in mind, what is seen as collapse may not be what anyone expects.

The unfunded liabilities with Medicare and Medicaid (of which the bulk of the liabilities come from, particularly Medicare) can be dealt with pretty easily, if the cost of healthcare is dealt with.

If we can enact policies that reverse the trajectory of health care costs, we could solve many of the issues facing the United States in the future.

Of course, we have to ask, how are we going to reverse the trajectory? Simply, we need to end crony capitalism in the health care industry. Obamacare is crony capitalism. Romneycare is crony capitalism. Medicare part D was crony capitalism. Nixon's HMOs were crony capitalism.

End the Government control and manipulation of healthcare, let the free markets work, and we can fix a large part of the future debts.

---

There are so many other things that can be changed, too. $1tn of the US's debt can be attributed to the drug war. End the war on drugs. We'll see a USA with half the crime rate, half the number of prisoners, and people who are currently pushed off the sides of society becoming productive members of society.

---

Then there's foreign policy. Get the fuck out of Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan. Close down 30-50% of all foreign military bases, and open a new one in the US for every 5 that is closed.

----

Finally, the tax code. Tax credits and breaks need to be eliminated. Capital gains tax needs to be eliminated. Maybe merge welfare systems directly into the tax code, and introduce something like Friedman's negative income tax. (I don't like this, but it's a shit-tonne better than the current system).

----

There you go, a handful of pretty much non-controversial policies that won't take away anyone's medicare, and will fix much of the deficit problem. Cut downs on the regulatory code, police spending, and eliminating some departments wouldn't go amiss, either (I'm looking at you, FCC).

Due to the money in politics, and the fact that Big X industry will end up hiring retired government officials, and right legistlation to favor themselves, it is really impossible to avoid crony Capitalism.  When Obama first proposed creating a government run insurance company to compete in the market, it got shot down by the insurance industry, and other partisans jumping on.  After this came a proposal for non-profit insurance companies chartered by the government to step in and compete, and that got shot down.  So Obama rolls out the Heritage Foundation Romneycare with mandates, and a bunch more regulations to hold the entire thing together, and let the insurance companies get funds in exchange for more regulations.  And it passed, with the GOP jumping on board to oppose, because they need to politically oppose Obama.

Ending Crony Capitalism isn't just going to happen, particularly in a political climate where anything remotely Occupy related gets spun into "Lazy bums want free stuff!" rather than an attempt to depower the crony side by weakening their ability to buy politicians.