Thanks for a most interesting article. One thing that exists now that did not exist in the late 1800’s is comfort with debt.

Then it was anathema; today it is how people and nations routinely go about their material existences. The U.S. didn’t even have a central bank in that period to act as a lender of last resort for the central government. Credit cards did not exist. Etc. Now, debt is the fuel the economy.

Debt can stave off collapse, keeping the economy muddling along, for an indefinite period of time. Eventually, since total debt grows faster than the economy (i.e. total income) does, debt itself will trigger economic collapse. In the meantime it makes the economy more vulnerable to external shocks, such as war (with cyberwarfare an increasing threat). Due to the ubiquity of debt and its functional place in government and the economy as a whole, when that collapse does occur it till take the institutions of society — civilization — with it.

Fortunately, a solution exists: “Re-thinking the Economy’s ‘Fuel System’ to Avert the Collapse of Civilization” here in Medium.