There is ONE major reason for US devastation. People have forgotten two things that would reverse the devastation: 1) How to make a whole lot more of their own products, personally, themselves; 2) How to barter rather than use money. One of the biggest mistakes that people are making right now, especially poor people, is that they are sitting around instead of inventing. What would they invent? All kind of ways to more easily grow and make what they need to live, rather than buy it at the store. Nobody needs money when he knows how to make it, and how to make it without all the "rare" materials that big business uses.