My Google-fu is failing me. Would any of our librarians or otherwise smart people like to look for links to what would happen if the global economy collapsed completely? (It's for a book idea.) Not the big political stuff, the everyday details of how Average Person's life would change.

I found a couple of pieces online, but they're vague about those details. My only real reference is something like The Stand or Dawn of the Dead, and in that case services fail because everyone's dying (or coming back to life violently). If it was a strictly economic collapse, I'm wondering how long services would be viable -- would the government seize control of the utilities? Would there still be school for kids? Stuff like that.

Help, please?

My Google-fu is failing me. Would any of our librarians or otherwise smart people like to look for links to what would happen if the global economy collapsed completely? (It's for a book idea.) Not the big political stuff, the everyday details of how Average Person's life would change.

Maybe nobody knows exactly what would happen. And it would depend on how the global economy collapsed (where it started, how fast of a collapse, etc).

I hope I'm wrong and someone will find useful info for you.

So there's a small energizer plant in my small town - it employees 165 people which is pretty big. It's closing down, according to the boston.com article, it's because people aren't buying the batteries that are made there.

But on the FB page of our local newspaper one of the employees said all the jobs are moving to Singapore and the employees here trained their replacements. I haven't read the full local newspaper article (the big stories aren't online) but it really sucks if that's what happened.

Came across this blog post this morning: [link] It's a GOP volunteer who was supposed to be on the GOTV team, talking about what a debacle election day was.

I have to say, in a lot of ways that reminds me of what working for the government is like.

I have to say, in a lot of ways that reminds me of what working for the government is like.

You'd think Romney would know the government is the problem, not something to be emulated.

I have to say, in a lot of ways that reminds me of what working for the government is like.

Heh. Except IME nothing gets put into implementation until it's been tested to death. That's why my computer is so slow and behind the curve (still on IE 7, oh yes): they are extremely conservative with big implementation projects, and it takes forever to get through the design/contract/build process.

I'm not saying the system, once implemented, is all that awesome, but it's at least been tested.

IME nothing gets put into implementation until it's been tested to death. That's why my computer is so slow and behind the curve (still on IE 7, oh yes)

My company prides itself on having "military-grade" security, which is apparently why we are still running WinXP and IE 8.

Fortunately our local IT team is very understanding, which is why I'm also running Chrome.

Motherfucker -- the UPS website says they tried to deliver my coffee table, but of course no one rang my bell, and there is no note on my door. I'm on the phone with them now, but COME ON.

Amy, I've been doing considerable research on the subject, since I've come to believe I could write a better post- apocalypse novel (without zombies)than many other there now. Most of them don't think through the subject on so many levels, and they so often act as if we went back to 18th century technology, we'd also go back to 18th century social norms. Fat chance.

The peak oil people has worked out some scenarios, although the argument for the end of oil is laughable. The Long Emergency by peak-old guru James Howard Kunstler includes some possibilities, but are unnecessarily pessimistic.

There are a few novels that deal with survival for ordinary families, sans zombies and sadistic warlords. The best recent ones I know are Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It trilogy. There are a million survivalist sites that touch on aspects of this. Maybe someone more accounting-oriented can come up with possible ways for the economy to collapse. There are a lot of crazy conspiracy theories about how it could happen, but I haven't found many sane ones.

I'd be happy to kick so ideas around, since I'm doing it anyway.

My company prides itself on having "military-grade" security, which is apparently why we are still running WinXP and IE 8.

Perhaps CPM would be safer still.