The US government is on a "burning platform" of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country's top government inspector has warned.
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country's future in a report that lays out what he called "chilling long-term simulations".
These include "dramatic" tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were "striking similarities" between America's current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including "declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government".
"Sound familiar?" Mr Walker said. "In my view, it's time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time."
Reality starts to set in at some time, doesn't it?
Here are a few ingredients in the collapse:
* Combine lower taxes with the cost of a war, with that cost exacerbated by the fact that most of the forces on the ground are so-called contractors, at a much higher per head cost than the 'official' soldiers.
* The continuing ripples coming from the exposure of Bear Stearns to the subprime mortgage market.
* The gradual impact on the cost of everything from increased oil costs.
* The hollowing out of most western countries' manufacturing through the move to a flat world.
The list goes on...
And while there is a refusal to deal with climate change and the laws of unintended consequences of the war in Iraq - like the rise in terrorism in other countries - it is inevitable that the train wreck is coming.
