I believe that high inflation is the answer:

High inflation would do the following:

• Reduce government debt
  
• Reduce consumer debt
  
• Fix the housing bubble
  
• boost sales of US exports
  
• jumpstart domestic manufacturing (imports would be more expensive, exports would be in demand)

One of the replies to this situation that is starting to occur here, though I am not sure at what scale, and does require you not being up to your neck in debt - i.e. some disposable income that you can maneuver with is:

Buying a third car. I spoke with a couple yesterday in which both used their vehicles for work (not just to commute). Hers was a good Toyota, his a Silverado. He needs his to make deliveries occasionally. That is the operative word - occasionally. So he is thinking of a Prius for his regular work car and call on the Silverado when he needs it (1 day a week?).

To haul your boat or trailer, you need the gas guzzler, so maybe we just up the number of vehicles at home.

If I've lost my service job, or likly to, maxed out my credit cards, and staring down the barrel of Repo. on the house with no equity build up why not "strip" the asset I "own" for cash rather than just give it back to the bank "as is"?

Gut out the water pipes and electrical wires for the copper scrap, sell off the high end bath and lighting fixtures to a "dont ask dont tell"  contractor for reuse, same with that high end kitchen stuff like the granite countertops and Stainless dishwasher and cooktop.

Next to go is that "floating floor" system thats wall to wall in the whole place (hardwood plywood strips) they can be removed without destroying them, and sold off.

At this point its pretty much a shell, but you'd never know from the outside...

Now I'm down to the "dive bar" and sell the front door keys to a local hood looking to site his pot "grow" house or crystal meth lab (make sure to leave the main breaker panel in place for him to hook up his sodium lights to he'll pay more that way).

It'll be at least 90 days post default untill "they" send someone around to actually check the house, maybe longer if you get the demand letters fwd'd to a mail "dead drop" and spin them a line of bullsh*t, by which time I'm long gone out of state.

Maybe drug guy has burned it down by then and the fire insurance may actually pay off the bank, "who cares", I'm broke...

We really don't know what "big bad" looks like, but this story goes on now below the radar of main stream media in small quantity, no reason to think it won't scale up" in my opinion.

In Phoenix, there is a bias against "old homes" (apparently old starts somewhere between 20 and 30 years) because they are  a problem to upkeep and they are "too small".  The current standard of construction is quite low and will not "hold up".

My prediction is that once growth stalls in Phoenix, the rate of shrnkage in population will match the prior growth.  The 20% of the labor force in construction will move away first.  Retirees, with limited transportation needs (and Phoenix has almost zero heating needs) will move close to the VERY limited light rail lines.  Existing homes will be rebuilt into multi-family housing.  Vast stretches will be row after row of mainly abandoned homes with the odd hold-out here and there.

Who wants to live in a neighborhood with 1/3 of the homes empty ?  1/2 ? 2/3 ? 4/5 ?

Declining urban services will drive more away.

Yes, electric cars will appear, but older, poorly constructed homes in empty neighborhoods will appeal to few.

There is a "stampede" herd mentality in real estate.  The herd has stampeded to Phoenix, they will stampede away just as quickly.

"Rip up the roads" and start farming again? well fine, you'll find 6" of compacted gravel under the pavement, and infertile "sub soil" under that. I say infertile because it has no "tilth", no large size organic components to hold water, provide PKN to plants, or sustain soil critters (from microbes through to worms and bug larva, all of which are part of the working community that is soil.

Yes the top soil can be "rebuilt", but to do so in a way that will "scale" i.e. not just trucking in "good soil" from some other exburb strip mine, requires Pemaculture methods which are very slow.  You need to work back up a sucession of plants species that can grow on marginal and damaged lands until you can get it to the point of being marginal pasture (i.e. goats not sheep or cows) That will start getting some manure on the land which is good!

Then we can start the nitrogen fixing cover crops etc. Think in terms of a few millimeters of net topsoil buildup each year, with hard effort from skilled farmers. Maybe "Grade B" land after a century of proper management a a smile from mother nature!

The legacy of fertile soils is more valuable than we really know how to calculate in an age of overshoot and impending price spike demise of chemical intensive farming in my opinion, and the trashing of the now exburb lands of North America a crime against our grandchildren of huge magnitude.

But at least they will have plenty of work to do  < black humor

How far can these roaming gangs move in a day? Without cars maybe 15 miles.

Who says they'll be without cars?  The "Mad Maxing" around scenario sort of implies that there are still cars.  

How would they decide which way to go?

Where the food is, presumably.  

Of the upper middle class expects these gangs to be mostly black teenagers so shoot first and talk later will be considered self defense.

In that case, white gangs will have no trouble at all.  ;-)

I don't think that would be an effective defense, anyway.  Farmers have a serious disadvantage against raiders.  They have a lot of property to protect, and a relatively low population density.  Raiders aren't planning to stay, so they'd be willing to do things settlers would be reluctant to do.  Shooting missiles at the house from far away.  Sabotaging water supplies.  Burning forests and fields.  Destroying infrastructure.

Tainter found that people moved closer to cities as collapse approached - because isolated farms and villages were vulnerable to raids.  I bet it wasn't just gangs of urban teens, either.  It was probably the armies of neighboring cities/states.