Well, everyone is going to have to get to the last stage of grief and accept that leading a normal life in western countries just isn’t possible anymore. Infinite profit seeking is a cancer that’s currently killing the host, and traditions of bourgeois paths to success just aren’t viable. Everything’s coming right on down and so many people are still in the stage of denial, which sucks because they always make it everyone else’s problem until they get past the bargaining phase (which sort of seemed like what you were talking about here in terms of “role model example” being sufficient to save their kids from the total societal collapse in-progress).

So very well put. Right, the pyramid scheme seems to be toppling — in the metropole, it was sustainable for a generation or two, but even then only given the somewhat extraordinary circumstances (expansion of the neocolonial empire).