Summary: After many years of decadence, the United States of America is now in free fall. We are now ignorant, and indeed contemptuous of knowledge, critical thinking, and rationality. We no longer value freedom. We have legalized the practice of torture. Our public health system is terrible. Our public education system is atrocious. Our technological infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly; we can't afford to keep it up. We owe money all over the world, and other nations view us with either contempt or hatred. Our politicians are too corrupt and inept to moderate our collapse.

In an interesting final section, the author considers, inconclusively, the question of how much of the world we'll take down with us.