> But if this is the future that is
> awaiting us after Mordor falls, please show me another path.
It's not really the future. It's the present reality of East Asia -- the reason why Japan, China et. al. are pulverizing the US industrial base into tiny shards of silicon. But East Asia will have to become more like the EU in the future -- the dollar decline means the US can no longer serve as a source of final demand. The big shift may already be here: Japan's investment rates are down to 23% of GDP, way below the 30% of the 1980s, and China, South Korea and Taiwan are all experimenting with consumer credit.
My own wild guess on the genesis of the Fourth Age: it'll start somewhere in the EU.
-- DRR