12 Shocking Clues About What America Will Look Like When The Next Great Economic Crisis StrikesMichael Snyder Right now, economic conditions in this country are not anywhere close to where they werebefore 2008, but this is just the beginning. We are in the midst of an ongoing economic collapse which is going to get much, much worse in the years ahead. When the next major wave of the economic crisis strikes, millions of people are going to become extremely desperate. And desperate people do desperate things. We are already starting to see this play out all over the nation, but this is only a preview of coming attractions. What we are going to witness in future years is going to be almost too horrible for words. So how can I be so sure that this is going to happen? After all, the United States didnt descend into complete and utter chaos during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Wouldnt an economic depression unfold in a similar manner today? Unfortunately, a lot has changed since then. A lot more Americans were self-sufficient back in those days, and the truth is that the character of our nation has been rotting and decaying for decades. In a previous article, I described it this way We are simply not the same country that we used to be. Americans are proud, selfish, greedy, arrogant, ungrateful, treacherous and completely addicted to entertainment and pleasure. Our country is literally falling apart all around us, but most Americans are so plugged into entertainment that they cant even be bothered to notice what is happening. What would have happened if there had been an extended outage or if the political crisis in D.C. had caused food stamps to be completely cut off at some point in November? Lets be thankful that we did not have to find out. But even though major food stamps riots may have been averted (at least for now), there are a whole host of other signs that America is going to become a very unstable place during the next major economic downturn. The following are 12 shocking clues about what America will look like when the next great economic crisis strikes #1 Would you continue to work as a bus driver if you were stabbed while driving or if a passenger poured urine all over you? Just check out what has been going on in Detroit lately After two drivers were recently stabbed and another had urine poured on her by an angry rider, union officials representing bus drivers for the city of Detroit are set to protest in front of city hall at 10 a.m. on Monday. #2 We are starting to see a lot of group crimes happen all over America. For example, just the other day in Brooklyn, New York a gang of 10 young thugs dragged a young couple out of their vehicle and brutally beat them Ronald Russo was dragged to the ground. Then he was punched and kicked in the head. He felt more blows all over his body, investigators said. He suffered a fractured nose, a broken septum, a blood clot and abrasions to his shoulder. He was treated and released from Beth Israel Medical Center. In the midst of the attack, there was a steady chorus of epithets. White motherf! screamed the attackers, who ranged in age from 12 to 18. #3 A lot of people assume that they are perfectly safe inside their own vehicles but that is not the case at all. A story in the New York Post about a gang of bikers that ruthlessly hunted down a young family that was driving an SUV made national headlines a few weeks ago A gang of bikers terrorized a dad driving with his wife and baby daughter on the West Side Highway chasing after their SUV and then dragging the man out and beating him to a pulp in front of his horrified family, authorities said. When the bikers caught up with this family they showed the father of the baby daughter absolutely no mercy One biker can be seen on the video ripping off his helmet and using it to bash in Liens drivers-side window. The crew pummeled Lien on the pavement in front of his wife, Rosalyn Ng, and their 2-year-old daughter, police sources said. Lien, who also was slashed during the melee, was rushed to Columbia University Medical Center. He needed stitches to his face and chest and had two black eyes. #4 We are living at a time when hearts are becoming very cold. Some Americans are becoming so desperate for money that they will do almost anything to get it. In fact, one couple in Tennessee has actually been charged with selling their four daughters for use in sex films An East Tennessee couple is facing a list of charges, accused of selling their children to take part in sex films. Connie Sue McCall, 40, and her husband, Ronnie Lee McCall, 61, of Johnson City have been charged by a federal grand jury. Paperwork shows the couple was selling their four daughters. Prosecutors say the four girls were between the ages of 5 and 16 when this happened. Could you imagine such a thing happening in your neighborhood? Perhaps it is happening, but you just dont know that it is going on. #5 And it is not only older people that are having their hearts grow cold. It is happening to young people too. Last week, a 17-year-old girl was caught carrying around a dead baby (which she probably gave birth to) in a shopping bag in a Victorias Secret store right in the heart of Manhattan The dead baby found in the teens shopping bag at a Victorias Secret store in Manhattan was born alive and then asphyxiated, police said Friday, as the macabre discovery turned toward a possible homicide case. So much for no child left behind. Speaking exclusively to CBS 3, a 15-year-old high school student, whose identity we are concealing, described a terrifying attack by a gang of at least nine teenage boys as she was leaving an Interboro High School football game Monday night. The teenage victim described first being taunted by the attackers, who followed her down a neighborhood street, cursing and spitting at her, before she wasrepeatedly kicked and punched, suffering at least one blow to her head. The attackers even tried to throw her in front of a passing vehicle and nobody tried to stop them The victim says as at least two of the teenagers pummeled her, the others cheered them on shouting, Come on, lets get her! At one point, the victim says, the gang tried to throw her under the wheels of a passing car, which swerved, narrowly missing her. About five shots tall, I drank it. I guess I didnt know how badly it would mess me up. But the boys who gave it to me did. Then it was like I fell into a dark abyss. No light anywhere. Just dark, dense silence and cold. Thats all I could ever remember from that night. Apparently, I was there for not even an entire hour before they discarded me in the snow. You can read the rest of her sobering story right here. Are you starting to understand why I am so convinced that we have a major problem with our young men in America today? Instead of raising young gentlemen, we are raising wild animals that seem to have very little self-control. #9 And sometimes the public does not do anything to stop sexual assaults even when they happen on public streets. In a recent incident in Athens, Ohio, not only did the public not stop a sexual assault, many actually took photos of the assault and posted them on social media websites Horrific photos of an alleged rape in progress have been shared on social media after crowds at a college homecoming celebration chose to take pictures and videos of the sex act rather than stopping it. Would such a thing have happened in our country 50 years ago? Of course not. We need to come to grips with how far we have fallen. #10 In America today, young kids can beat a homeless man to death and it barely even makes a blip on the news. Ill bet hardly any of you have heard about what happened recently to a homeless man in New Jersey Three teenagers were in custody Saturday morning, on charges of beating a homeless man to his death in Hoboken, N.J. As CBS 2s Janelle Burrell reported, Hudson County Acting Prosecutor Gaetano T. Gregory said two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old were charged in the Sept. 10 death of Ralph Eric Santiago, 46. What would cause 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds to behave so savagely? Could it be because we are raising them in a society where basic morality is not taught any longer? #11 Our young people certainly do not have much respect for the very elderly anymore either. Instead, the elderly are looked at as weak and easy prey. Just check out what recently happened to a 70-year-old man in upstate New York A 70-year-old man was seriously injured early Saturday morning after being attacked outside of a 7-Eleven in Syracuse. Police say James Gifford had just left the store at the intersection of Valley Drive and South Street just after 6:00 a.m. and was attacked by a group of five or six black males, according to Syracuse Police. Police also said this appears to be an unprovoked incident with an innocent victim. #12 In this day and age, it is very hard to tell who you can trust. You might meet someone on the street and they might smile and seem very nice, but inside they may be full of all kinds of garbage. For example, just check out what one man in the Boston areaplanned to do A Boston-area man, who was planning to kidnap children, lock them in a basement dungeon, rape and eat them, should be imprisoned for at least 27 years, federal authorities said in court documents filed this week. Geoffrey Portway pleaded guilty in May to distribution and possession of child pornography and solicitation to commit a crime of violence, according to court documents. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 17. This is how twisted and perverted our society has become. A lot of Americans believe that if we could just elect the right politicians or if we could just change our economic system or if we could just fix one particular issue that everything would be right in America again. Unfortunately, what we are facing is not so simple. Our problems are not just in Washington D.C. or on Wall Street. The truth is that our biggest problem is what is going on inside of us. America is rotting and decaying on the inside, and the next great economic crisis is going to reveal just how bad things have gotten. Or could it be possible that I am overstating things? Please feel free to share what you think about the ongoing collapse of our society by posting a comment below This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 