he economy will likely collapse again before the end of the decade. There won't be the money or the resources.

Depressed kids can always find outlets. I drew, listened to music, taught myself 68k assembly language for my calculator, read a lot, and lifted weights.

Still the initial cost of a 100 mile range battery is so high, it does not break even for a long time. That is the major hurdle.

But the idea that book reading will become marginal enough that it's cultural significance will essentially be irrelevant. i.e. like poetry

I'm not in marketing, but I got some insider information from people who are, and they all say that about 50% of all the money put into advertisement has basically the same effect on sales as burning it would have.

IMO, if ads stopped across all internet sites, or the online advertising industry completely collapsed. The internet as we know it, would be gone

They are the canary in the coal mine regarding confidence in make nothing/print money western economies.

How has this being a global economy made it easier for Americans to go to Western Europe for example to work? Not a damn bit.

Other countries are just waiting for it all to collapse and pick our bones.

To the most economically, technologically and military powerful nation the planet?

That is, the person you're communicating the concepts with presumably knows enough about what you're talking about to be able to resolve the ambiguity.