I cannot tell you how people will hurt because I do not know.
However what I do know is what unsustainable is. You are not being flippant, you are being normal.
One thing that we cannot really comprehend is something we have never experienced. None of us can comprehend death because none of us have experienced it. We cannot comprehend poverty, starvation, lack of resources, lack of energy, fuel, food or anything like that.
Your argument about happiness and a roof over your head and all your friends being happy is not anything I am arguing about. However you conveniently failed to even acknowledge the facts that I reprinted from the original post.
The cold hard fact, mathematically, economically, and logically is that our current fiscal situation cannot and will not be maintained. Overall things will change for the worse. It may be in our lifetime and if not it will certainly be in our childrens lifetime. My definition of hurt implies a steady degradation of the quality of life. Statistically speaking your children will not enjoy the wealth you have. They are already saddled with about 50k per person. This is at our current interest rate. Think of what that debt load will be when (not if) rates go up.
The premise of the article is that major upheavals occur on a certain timeline. I am not sure about the timeline part however I agree with the premise that at some point, when a system ceases to function major upheaval occurs. The good news is that on the other side of upheaval, quality of life improves. However going through it all generally means things get bad for the majority of the population.
Like you I am doing well and happy with life as are my friends. I am slowly trying to take some precautions for myself and children but am not as preoccupied as the doomsday preppers on television.
A quick study of history shows it is perfectly natural for civilizations to rise and fall. The populace suffers or hurts during the fall. It is simply logical that the timelines/periodicity of the rise and falls of civilizations will compress as technology advances.
Obviously you feel things are fine and possibly getting better for everyone. I do not. I see a slow erosion, more poverty, a middle class that is shrinking and those in that middle class are also seeing a slow loss of wealth compared to the recent past.
I guess we will see how it all turns out for our kids.
Personally I very much hope you are right and I am wrong.