What I'm hoping for may sound unfair and selfish. I want the ordinary citizens of the USA to be hurt, and hurt badly, by both the economic outcomes of the foregoing and the losses of personal freedom. I want it to last long enough so they will awaken to the reality of the results of the last election and take steps to reverse it. I want the lessons learned to be severe enough to be lasting. I've prepared my extended family to be able to sustain ourselves through such a period.

Unfair and selfish is an understatement. Wishing harm on others is more like cruel and malicious! It's also a bit arrogant to imply that others are too naive to realize, what you believe is true, unless they endure significant pain first.

To be clear, I don’t think anyone here is cruel, malicious, or arrogant. Everyone on this board is genuinely good-hearted, though apparently, darker thoughts can occasionally creep into our minds!

It's one thing for us middle-aged/old people to stew in our thoughts, but if we’re also going to influence family, especially the younger more impressionable members, I think it's important not to rob them of their natural optimism.

The US has the world’s deepest capital markets, vast energy and other natural resources, leadership in technology, top-tier universities, a culture that celebrates risk taking & entrepreneurship, not-too-bad demographics, etc. It's also uniquely anti-fragile to tyranny and dictatorship, because purely as a practical matter, it's not possible to subjugate a heavily armed (estimated 400 - 500 million civilian-owned firearms) population beyond a certain limit.

Against this incredible backdrop, we can expect a reasonably stable future of great abundance in every field led by an AI productivity boom.

I worry that we adults, while rightly concerned about current events, are not doing enough to help the next generation get excited about the future and realize that extraordinary opportunities, unthinkable even a few years ago, will be within their grasp. All they need to do is stay focused, work hard and get the right guidance.