For many years now, the only way the USA has been able to service the national debt is by issuing more debt in the form of Treasury Bonds to cover the existing debt. If foreign nations like Saudi Arabia and China stop buying our bonds we would be in default. Who knows what could happen then -- would this give the nations we owe trillions of dollars to the right to seize American assets? Would American technology be used to pay off the debts? This is unknown territory.
Most likely, the nations we owe so much money to would have no choice but to continue propping up our economy by continuing to buy our debt instruments so we can continue buying their oil and goods and services. What an interesting situation! The USA, the original source of so much ingenuity and creativity, that almost single-handedly created the modern way of life, has become a shell economy, living on credit and debt.

Well, folks, the jig is up, the cards are on the table, and if no one has noticed yet, the USA holds the short hand. The chips, for what they're worth are up for collection, and it may be no one wants to play the game anymore. But have they any choice? I doubt it, because most people in the modern world have learned to enjoy the game too much -- the dream where you may make it to the top, but few actually do. Doesn't that remind you of what gambling is all about? You buy a lotto ticket full well knowing that your odds of winning big are one in a million or several millions. Yet you still think you might get lucky...

To make things even more interesting, as goes the USA, so goes the world. So we all have some pretty serious decisions to make:

Do we continue to struggle to prop up the debt riddled, war game economy, the economy of extravagance and excess, the game of pathological consumption or do we go back to the frugal and thrifty way of the simple life upon which our country was founded?

The old Yankee way of life was to save and convert what is now thrown away into useful objects instead of buying more, such as bottles, bottle caps and used hosiery, which were converted into all kinds of useful things. The old way of life was one of pinching pennies, stretching fruit juice by watering it down, reusing things instead of throwing them away, and generally enjoying walks in the park instead of TV, movies, rented DVD's and videogames, etc.

Money was made to be saved, not just spent, so we would have some to fall back upon in emergencies. Today, most people would become destitute within a few months if they lost their jobs and could not find another that pays a decent wage.

One way illegal immigrants have been able to survive in the USA is by accepting substandard wages that most legal Americans will not accept or cannot survive upon. Among other reasons most legal Americans cannot survive on minimum wages while illegal immigrants can is because they still insist on their own private residences, while illegals don't. Illegal immigrants and even those who were recently legalized have learned to pack several families and/or housemates into one dwelling, thereby spreading the burden of occupancy over the whole group.

Another way they have learned to survive in the American economy is by living simply save their addiction to buying new cars and trucks. No matter how sparse their living quarters, they can escape into the fast life by driving around in luxury in their dream machines, believing in this way they too are a little closer to living the American dream that has in reality become the big American Deception.

In ancient times among the Israelites, the nation declared a Jubilee every 50 years. During this time, all debts were forgiven, and everyone could start over with a clean financial slate. Perhaps this is the only real answer to the situation as it stands today.

Any other suggestions?