Economy got you down? 4 ways it could get (way) worse

Milla Jovavich dealing with a collapsed economy.

The way I see it, there are four main ways for society to come crashing down.

I'm actually pretty optimistic. It's just that a post-apocalyptic world appears to be gaining interest amongst the geek set yet again. My first brush with this mindset began with the off-grid moves inspired by early 1970s works like the "Last Whole Earth Catalog," evolving to the fiscal depression that accompanied the decade's end and the first of the real resurgence of zombies with "Dawn of the Dead."

Don't grok that? Sky-high interest rates and crap job prospects. Remember Foghat?

For the record, I have nothing against Foghat, or Foreigner for that matter. And the Sonics won the NBA championship so it wasn't all bad.

But back to the topic at hand. Dealing with all forms of the societal destruction I have in mind would require talents of survivalists, off-grid enthusiasts and teachings of pioneers from the past who created all they needed with a Bowie knife, some twine and spit.

Of course, my premise is heavily influenced by the devolving political global landscape, spiraling ecological devastation and science fiction with a good dose of Hollywood suspension of disbelief.

Scenario No. 1: Trickle-down. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the cyberpunk culture foreseen by writer William Gibson, specifically in his Bridge Series. In the third and final book, "All Tomorrow's Parties," he paints a society where the Golden Gate Bridge has become shanty housing and various corporations control everything except cardboard chic.

Scenario No. 2: Climate change. The never-ending pursuit of profits pushes the planet over the edge. Oceans rise, island nations disappear and hordes of refugees from low-lying coastal communities pour into higher ground, triggering economic disaster.

Off the grid: TV tries on extreme energy efficiency

The cast of Falling Skies.

The Twilight Zone episode "The Midnight Sun" chronicles the last days of Earth through the eyes of two women.

Stuck in an apartment building, they try to hang on as the planet heats to an inferno.

A man with a gun steals their water, which is invaluable as most of it boils off into the atmosphere. He apologizes. Then the thermometer bursts, oil paintings melt and the women pass out.

A surprise ending reveals that the earth is actually spinning away from the sun, becoming inhospitably cold. The overheated scenario is revealed to be a fever-fueled nightmare of one of the women. Everybody's going to die but by freezing, not frying.

A darker view of the future

That TV show originally aired Nov. 17, 1961, near the height of the Cold War when many could see the end of the world, or at least imagine it. The Twilight Zone was hardly alone reflecting the fears rife within popular culture. Horror films with political overtones experienced a renaissance. The anti-hero emerged. And negative realism supplanted much of the just-so attitude of the previous decade.

The economic collapse, the unknowns surrounding climate change and the threat of a finite supply of fossil fuels appears to be giving rise to similar doomsday sentiment. TV has taken up the challenge of answering the question: "What if life as we know it collapsed?" with a couple of slickly produced shows.