"1 in 100 Americans behind bars, report finds. Prison spending ballooned from $11 billion to $49 billion in 2 decades."

With each of these people having children and spouses who are also shut out of the American dream, we are creating a huge underclass with no investment in "The System". The increasing disparity between wealthy and poor, with even stable families having to take two minimum wage jobs to just exist, with illegal immigrants undercutting any wage structure which had a chance to create a middle class, the US has created a time bomb. If one projects out to the logical consequences, the outlook is grim. Check the demographics. The creation of two Americas means neither America can survive.

If there is social and economic disruption due to global warming, the rise of other superpowers, the competition for resources from an energized China and the rest of Asia, Russia, and Europe, all the gated communities and Blackwaters the US can create won't protect the "super-citizens" from the "under-citizens" and non-citizens. And the denial so well perfected in many in the US will stand them in good stead as it collapses.

Grim.

Arf