Good and concise response, Fleam. Could be we are far enough removed from that reality now to make an important difference, not for the good. It feels so in UK, more so in the bits of USA I know. Could be your relative disadvantage before will give you some advantage henceforth, I dunno. But I do expect 80% of US households to be facing borderline economic (and subsequently real) survival within 5 years.

Rough? I have a nasty feeling most have no idea what even mildly rough feels like. Honestly have no idea how people will react.

I'm with you Agric, I can't believe it, most white Americans seem to have lived these incredibly easy lives. There seem to be actually very few who have experienced actual malnutrition (not the "fat but sick" kind, I mean the ribs sticking out kind) or been where there are almost NO jobs, and what jobs there are, are monopolized by other groups with the blessing of the laws, at least how they're locally interpreted, and in the case of some laws, flat-out put them at a disadvantage - often their wealth* insulates them from the brutal everyday world I and I guess a mostly stifled stratum have seen though.

*Wealth - defined by, if your parents can afford to let you live in their garage, they HAVE a garage, and let you eat their table scraps while you attend the local college, that's enough wealth to catapult you into a degree and the gravy train that follows after. This does not sound very wealthy, but it's infinately wealthy compared to sink-or-swim-by-late-teens beginning many Americans have. People from other countries are generally appalled by the way many American kids are kicked out of the nest to fly or not-fly. If you want to look up another culture like the US's, look up a people known as the Iks.