I used to hear that California was 10 years ahead of the rest of the United States. In other words, the rest of the US will be like California is now in 10 years. If that is still the case, then the US is in for some tough sledding because California is bankrupt and it is too late to do anything about it. Their retirement system appears to be unsustainable. I heard that they have over 20,000 retired state employees whose pensions are more than $150,000 per year, and the number is climbing fast since state employees only have to be 50 years old to retire. They have former Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown, the first "hippie" governor, to thank for their dire financial circumstances. Here is an article describing the situation. Of course the US won’t go bankrupt because, unlike California, the US can print money. But, there could be some serious inflation as the national debt is monetized.