I advise you to watch that link posted above if you're interested, but I fall firmly in the camp that of worried non-believers in global catastrophic events anytime soon. For years and years scientists have been telling us "the sky is falling!", but it hasn't. Well, that's debatable as the Great Depression and both World Wars may disagree. What I'm talking about is something of that nature. One that is apocalyptic in scale and destroys our way of life as we know it.
Now, to be an economist, believe in the free market, and think that it will suddenly completely pull our feet out from underneath us is foolish. It may have a hiccup, and the market may even seem to completely collapse, but there are very few ways that it could completely give out. New oil reserves are constantly being found, tapped, or expanded. Green energy technology is pushing forward at breakneck speed, nuclear war is unlikely, and the most pressing problem, the debt, is unlikely to kill millions. The US is able to pay the debt back and we have no current problems doing that bit by bit. Furthermore, companies don't feel afraid to lend to the US and that is reflected in incredibly low interest rates. Politicians are beginning to try to hash out solutions (a long problem) and the government doesn't look like defaulting any time soon. The economy would have to get better before interest rates went up (because of better investments) and that would mean future debt would simply become more expensive. That would also make the current debt easier to pay off with a larger income from taxes. Certainly, if the government today defaulted on all of its debt the nation would be put into a crisis, but that won't happen. Anything else is to make a critical mistake about the market.
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