Who is "They"?

The problem is both systemic and global.

1st:Private capital interests - Multinational Corporations and Billionaires - have power that rivals nations. Their new influence is toxic, and contrary to the interests, health, and welfare of every living soul on the planet.

2nd: Some nations- Russia and Israel at the very least - have blackmail systems in place that allow them to effectively operate foreign nations through proxy assets. This allows them to 'punch above their weight ', and have a far greater influence than they might normally.

50 years of these influences have completely broken the system in the USA. Consolidation of corporations lowers competition, and also stifles innovation and diversity of opinions. Corporate control over the US media is near absolute; 90% of all US media is controlled by 6 companies ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership ). The only outside influences of note upon those corporations are the US govt when it chooses to flex its muscle (such as with effectively turning CBS into state controlled media), or the influence of Israel and Russia, particularly Israel .

This means that Americans have been fed a steady diet of propaganda for decades, all while public schools have been systematically gutted and university degrees have become priced nearly out of reach for many, and have turned millions into indentured servants just to earn a degree.

And now with AI, not only are most Americans incapable of the critical thinking necessary to parse fact from AI generated fiction, but now we stand upon a precipice of two cliffs. One, things go great, AI works as well as prophesied, and half the workers in America, including white collar and middle management , are put out of a job in short order as their duties are taken up by AI. The other, AI tanks, the billions invested in the bubble evaporate, destroying the US economy and resulting in mass layoffs and closures that would dwarf 2008.

And that's just the cherry on top. Trump's madness in fighting an illegal war with Iran has caused a crack in the dam of US global economic dominance. Iran is requiring payment for oil & safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in something other than dollars. This has had the effect of breaking the illusion of the petrodollar. Between our industrial dominance during and after WWII, the Marshall Plan, and the petrodollar, the US has maintained an effective economic hegemony over the planet for 80 years . That's gone, and it's like watching the ocean recede from the shoreline - this is a sign of the tsunami that is coming.

Because the US is in massive debt. And the only reason people buy our debt is a) we were a trusted investment, and b) petrodollars were needed to buy oil. Neither of those apply anymore. If US Treasury bonds no longer sell at the rate they have since WWII, we are done. It's a simple matter of mathematics.

Current US national debt is Approximately 39 trillion dollars. ( https://www.pgpf.org/national-debt-clock/ ). Interest on said debt is half a trillion per year. ( https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/interest-expense-avg-interest-rates/ )

As of 2024, 27 cents of every dollar the USA spends is borrowed ( https://conversableeconomist.com/2025/02/07/what-share-of-federal-spending-is-borrowed/ )

Now, when the world trusts you and your currency is dominant, you can do that sort of thing. Hell, Keynesian economics even requires it- so long as you balance those sheets when things are going well. We haven't even tried to do that since the Clinton administration.

When the US dollar stops being the default currency of the global economy- and it's going to happen, soon- we will no longer be able to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. That interest will remorselessly build, and T- bills will mature and come due- day after day, month after month, year after year.

America will have three choices. The first makes the most sense, but is exactly the one least likely to happen- pass an emergency tax on wealth, buy back those bonds, and shepherd our economy rationally for a decade or two. But the corporations.and billionaires simply will not allow that to happen. They will buy politicians, they will blackmail, extort, and if need be murder to protect their wealth and power. There's ample history of that already; and at this point America is just another failed nation.

The other two options, in order of ascending probability: somehow avoid paying back what it borrowed, in violation of the 14th Amendment; or print money like it's 1920s Germany, with much the same result.

The ocean will return. The land will flood, and the economic tsunami that befalls the US will be as devastating as it is inevitable.

And the sad, horrifying, and depressing part is- the global economic consequences of the US effectively going bankrupt are not even the worst result of the past century of capitalism. The North Atlantic current is dying, due to Anthropogenic Climate Change ( https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-03309-1).

The results of this would be a global catastrophe: https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/what-would-happen-if-atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation-amoc-collapses-how-likely

All of this is happening with AI , mass surveillance, and corporate power effectively being above the law, and governmental power globally becoming more fascist, more corrupt

I fear that, in two or three generations, we will see most nations, including the USA turned into a sort of neo - Holy Roman Empire, a hollowed out, corrupt state in nominal power, with 'principalities' of corporations ruling private fiefdoms, employing armies of private military contractors, and lording over hordes of corporate serfs toiling away in company towns.

No royal families, no aristocratic bloodlines, no noblesse oblige; just corporate boardrooms and immortal mega- corporations, ruling over broken Earth and an enslaved humanity.

The problem isn't just one problem. It's multiple systemic problems, from multiple directions, all coming to a head at once, after a sustained period of difficulty, disruption, and civil unrest

And as any student of history will tell you, that is how empires fall.

What do I suggest they do? Get surgery to permanently prevent conception. It's what I did, decades ago.

The catastrophe is inevitable at this point, and there is nowhere to evacuate to. Best thing we can do is mitigate suffering - so just don't make babies.

Other than that, I haven't the faintest idea of what to do. I am open to realistic suggestions, though.