The Economy is the term given to the financial health of the community, which is the contemporary (circa 2000) way of measuring the wealth of the community.

A more detailed description of Western Civilization's economic collapse is described in "America: What Went Wrong" by Donald Barlett and James Steele (1992). Though it is about the decline of commerce in the USA, the influences and the outcomes are the same for all of those countries making up Western Civilization.

^{New Rulers Of The Community}
The only firms that appear to be thriving are those whose position of trust allows them to dictate conditions and costs to the community. These include the Australian banks and the public telephone company Telstra who supply essential services at terms they alter as they see fit. This allows them to hold the community to ransom and become the new rulers of the community.

^{Return Of The Pawn Shop}
The growing poverty has naturally seen the resurgence of the pawn shop; there are now (circa 2002) five pawn shops in my suburb, all within two blocks, with Cash Converters occupying the space of three ordinary shops, though this did not deter Captain Cash from opening in adjacent premises in July, 2002. The mundane nature of the goods for sale clearly advertises the desperate plight of the people who have been forced to sell their property.

^{Media Lies}
Despite the reporting of mass redundancies, company closures and corporate failures, the media plays the same role as it did during the Great Depression (1929-1944)— it reports only that the economy is doing well or about to boom. Even the rare truthful article incorporates the notion that somehow, despite the fact that most people struggle to make ends meet, the economy is sound. False claims made inevitable by the community's hatred of truth.