Can countries really collapse?

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I’m reading about Lebanon and what it has been through, especially in the last several years. Inflation is out of control, where salaries are meaningless and grocers don’t even bother pricing their items because they can’t keep up with the changing rate. Basic human services like trash collection and electricity are not available. Citizens resort to holding banks up at gunpoint to get their own money out.

What happens when a country collapses? What does that really mean? What happens to all its people?

Edit to add another question: Is it actually possible for a country to be so mismanaged that its people literally all die out or leave?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The country collapsing is a statement that the government and economy have collapsed, not the people or the country itself. It generally means that the country falls into anarchy, the government ceases to exist for all practical purposes, and that basic necessities can become difficult or impossible to obtain. Often there is civil war, multiple groups trying to claim to be the government, and without a government there is no money supply so the economy collapses.

The economy collapsing my precede or be caused by the government collapsing. Typically, so long as the government is functioning well enough to be able to claim to be the government, the country itself is not considered to have collapsed.

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