Historians have long debated why American civilization collapsed in the middle of the 21st century. Conventional wisdom attributes the fall of the United States to its unsustainable retirement system. According to this argument, the retirees came to outnumber the workers supporting them and could use their power at the polls to block the necessary adjustments to the system. Hence the bankruptcy and financial chaos of the fourth decade of the 21st century. But I would argue that though this weakened American society, the death of that civilization grew out of its greatest technological achievement. I am referring to the ability to control the weather. When this power first became manifest in 2032, it seemed entirely beneficial. When hurricanes threatened, the Weathermakers (as the government's meteorological interventionists were dubbed) dissipated the storms. When the Mississippi Valley was getting too much rain, they could send the clouds off to the Gulf of Mexico. Soon, however, the public clamored for non-emergency interventions. When the hope for a sunny day was transmuted into popular political will, the stage was set for disastrous public policy. Although at first the no-rain days were reserved for holidays like the 4th of July, soon the urban majority could see no reason they should have to amuse their children indoors on rainy days. The Daily Weather Planning Committees of both houses of Congress came under intense pressure from such massive constituencies as the Nice Day Lobby and the People's Day in the Sun group. Despite vociferous opposition from agricultural groups, rain was eventually limited by law to the third Wednesday of each month. The farmers, after all, were only a tiny minority. When the warnings of the farm lobby proved all too true, it was too late. Crop failures made the country a net food importer and destroyed the value of the American currency. People had lots of sunny days for picnics, but nothing to eat at them. Even when people accepted that the rain must fall, they quarreled over where. "Not in my backyard" became the slogan of a popular movement. Since the collapse of the nation engulfed also the weather management system, the natural flow of weather returned. But the disintegration had gone too far, and survivors subsisted in those isolated agrarian communities that characterized the American feudal period for the next two centuries. Some have interpreted this history as demonstrating the dangers of technological advancement. But I am inclined to see it, rather, as a tale about the dangers that plague democratic systems of governance.

Andrew Bard Schmookler's most recent book is Fool's Gold: The Fate of Value in a World of Goods.