[HerbManic]

I do find it funny that some folks treat this is like the complete end of Japan (or whatever) nation, like you said a straight line down. But eventually it will bottom out and potentially rebound a bit. It find on the way up or at the top, and it will be fine at the bottom once the trends return but the issue really is the pain of the phase shift.

[bestouff]

Yeah sure. It never happened that a great civilization completely collapsed.

[Balgair]

I mean, Japan has been through a few 'collapses' in it's written history. The most recent arguably being in 1945.

[red-iron-pine]

and then the US invested heavily -- and still does, via military presence -- to build Japan back up to block the Soviets.

who will build them back up in the future? The Chinese would prefer to see them poor.

[bestouff]

Sure but I was thinking about more wide-scale collapses like Egyptians or Mayans.