When the Soviet Union collapsed Dmitry Orlov was there observing how the different systems shiftted. He has since lived in the US and in this interesting slideshow he compares the Collapse of the SU empire to the coming collapse of the US empire. Dmitry also has a book out about this called "Reinventing Collapse"
Orlov has many penetrating insights, couched in his dark humor. Particularly striking is the strong case he makes that the peoples of the USSR were actually better prepared for a collapse because
- they had learned to be more self-reliant
- many crucial functions (like housing and transportation) were taken care of by the state sector which was more stable than a private sector would have been.
- more family and social networks of help
