I completely agree with Chris Hedges. It's the natural progression of the economic system we have combined with limited natural resources.

The rise of neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism has exacerbated the issue, but capitalism was always going to be a snake that ate it's own tail.

The really scary part is how the nuclear nations will react to the collapse, first in defeating their foes to ride the wave out as long as they can, and then in quelling their populations that try to rise up against them. It's already happening. The whole rush to the Middle East black gold accelerated after 9/11. This has been forecasted for an even longer time than that. The people in charge of these nations know what's going on, and they have known for a long time. The U.S. has been trying to take over Iran since the 1950s. I still don't understand how some people can't understand what's been going on in the Middle East this whole time. The U.S. constantly fights against Russia and China economically. Syria has just been the next chapter in the story.

From what I read in the post I disagree whole-heartedly.

Unfortunately I could not reach the site to review the article.

Karl Marx's prophecies are coming true.

It seems as though we suddenly elected a dictator, and since the day he was elected, America has been devolving into a mess. America was never perfect, but, it seemed that we valued education, science, the environment, being a part of the world civilization, innovation, caring for the elderly, children, veterans, and intelligence and experience in our leaders. Now, all that is changed. Education is undermined, science is being tossed out, in favor of benefiting the rich, and using religion to explain the life around us, the environment is being thrown under the bus, so the rich can pollute in order to save money, there is no innovation, and social security, Medicare/Medicaid are in danger, and America first is the motto, as if there were no other countries on earth. This current president is incredibly amoral, vacuous, ignorant and addicted to adoration, and the majority of the house and senate are spineless toadies, who respond to his destruction and mayhem with regular fawnathons on the whitehouse lawn or in meetings, where he goes to each one for a sucking up. America is sinking into a country ruled by the uber rich, nepotism, and evangelist christians, who have unleashed racism, misogynistic tendencies, and using religion to determine laws. America will not survive unless people wake up and get rid of these oligarchs and dictators.