Relax, everybody! The USA will not completely collapse (or be nuked by China) for another ten or fifteen years, experts say. You'll probably already be dead by then, from some weird new Ebola-type thing in your anus burgers or maybe a Rascal pile-up outside the landfill, where people are wrestling for rats to eat. (This will be the main sport of the mid-late 2010s: XTr33M Rats-allin'. Bristol Palin will be the judge/executioner, from atop a giant toilet/OHV filled with live babies and McDonaldland "Shamrock Shakes.")

Anyway, read this thing, because Jesus christ:

A soft landing for America 40 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting ....

Faced with a fading superpower incapable of paying the bills, China, India, Iran, Russia, and other powers, great and regional, provocatively challenge U.S. dominion over the oceans, space, and cyberspace. Meanwhile, amid soaring prices, ever-rising unemployment, and a continuing decline in real wages, domestic divisions widen into violent clashes and divisive debates, often over remarkably irrelevant issues. Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal. The world pays next to no attention as the American Century ends in silence.