A world where fewer and fewer people fly, and their radius of travel shrinks. A world where electric cars are "on the brink" of replacing gasoline, but nobody has money to buy them. A world where the invisible hand of the market -- or is it the government? -- failed to step in at just the right moment to save the day. A world where people walk away from houses bought just a few years earlier and move in with relatives. A world where domestic politics is dominated by food and fuel prices. A world where college grads find the jobs they trained for no longer exist. A world where people refuse to accept that things have changed and insist that the glory days could have been preserved if it weren't for the politics of party X or Y, or of politician Z. A world where the U.S. is increasingly irrelevant outside of North America and arouses pity among Europeans. A world where Africans are aggressively desperate to get to Europe, and Europeans aggressively defensive. A world where free-market capitalism becomes the butt of jokes, and economists slowly realize they have been taught an ideology, not a science. A world where people increasingly escape into the dream world of the Internet and entertainment and give up traditional ambitions. A world of growing separatism within the U.S. and helpless and comical Federal government. A world where the values of the past 200 years are overturned, but legislation is not adapted to the new reality and a whole generation passes before new institutions and legislation are instated that are adequate for the new conditions.