[David Johnston2]

The problem of course with projecting right for'ard from the present is whatever you do will become almost immediately obsolete. Twilight 2000 looks quaint. Y2K looks silly. But if you're going to do it, you have an economic collapse already. Assume it really does become another Great Depression. Assume a massive flu pandemic in the next couple of years. Followed by genetically engineered Marburg or something so something like 40 million Americans die. An imaginary Republican takes power and launches another major "War on Terror" offensive to get whoever he picks as a scapegoat for the Marburg. The war spurs development of superior prosthetic limbs, and as it becomes increasingly unpopular again with the casualties mounting up, combat operations are turned over to private "contractors" because nobody counts their casualties. With increasing difficulty meeting the bills, conventional military shrinks in size. After the real work on the ground is being done by expendable but expensive mercenaries.

Meanwhile the population shortage only feeds the social pressures pushing the United States in the direction of foreign labour. A constitutional amendment is passed in 2024 saying that only children of citizens are eligible for citizenship. Executive policy leads to the restriction of social benefits to only citizens. The resurgence of the Republicans repopularizes privatisation in every way, and due to the insolvency of the American currency after hyper-inflation, corporations start paying their employees in scrip, and the employees actually consider that an improvement.