And lets say that president just cuts off huge swatches of your economy. Imposes huge blanket tariffs, cuts off all money, which is a proxy for energy, to scientific and medical research into solving problems, sometimes in very complex ways. You know, like Trump and Musk and the DOGE boys just did.
Well then, what you get is a titanic drop off in the supply of available energy. Energy societies, like the US, need in order to implement the solution to problems. Even evil solutions like sending your own private Gestapo out illegally kidnapping and disappearing people..
Not only is the supply of energy to new solutions cut off, but so is the supply to the complex solutions you've already implemented. You know, like Medicaid, Medicare, rural hospitals and the like who are going to shortly be devastated but massive cuts.
Complex solutions like the world class weather forecasting that has saved lives and property in the face of global climate change that is being decimated by Trump, Musk, and the DOGE boys just shutting things down because they don't think they matter.
I'm sure you can think up similar examples. Well, what happens when that energy supply is cut off? Well, the budget needs to be cut, because there isn't energy to spend, and those complex solutions are the first thing to go, because they cost the most, and have the least marginal benefit.
And when problems don't seem to get fixed anymore, the society begins to fall apart, because, frankly, what the fuck is the point when that society isn't allowed to do anything. And as Tainter shows exhaustively, this can happen VERY FAST. Like what has happened here kind of fast.
When those structures cannot be supported, they collapse, and collapse happens quickly. You may coast a bit like Wile E Coyote on your surplus, but gravity will take hold, and society will very suddenly get much less complex. Whole structures you never knew existed that supported other things gone.
Eventually, after the collapse, the people that made up that society will find a new equilibrium, because everyone does. You've seen other societies collapse in recent history. The USSR collapsed in this way and became much less complex. Often this ends up being a good thing for many in that society
Collapse of the USSR was a major trial and there was a lot of suffering, but there was also massive liberation and new nations were born (or reborn) and prosper to this day. But those consequences still ripple in our world to this day, with Putin and Ukraine, and will continue to.
And the American collapse, even if we are able to arrest it before too many props are pulled out, will have similar long ranging ripple effects. If anyone tells you they know how the building will land after a collapse they are fooling themselves. This isn't a controlled demolition we are living in.
This is Trump going around and knocking out every support he doesn't like just to see what happens, or just because he wanted to. We may be unable to stop this, no matter how many people of good will and great skill we can band together to try, and we cannot predict where the debris will fall.