When the US falls apart where will the ranks break?

Empires ‘break apart’ only with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, they merely experience creeping, incremental decline. As any decline (which is likely to be relatively small), sets in, USAians will make micro-adjustments to their way of life, and there will probably be no great schisms particularly evident, except in the political sphere, where there is already a large degree of polarisation.

I agree that there will be no noticeable breaks.

If anything, it will be in the groups with which many people already identify themselves primarily. In many cases, this is religion, simply because church life plays such a huge role as many peoples’ community centers. I suspect some level of rich vs. poor, because it’s in the nature of such a system for many of the rich to try to take advantage of the poor, and in the best interest of the poor to fight back. People in gangs will largely just stay that way, since they’re used to just relying on the gang. Many ethnic minorities already live in clusters and multi-generational family homes simply out of fiscal sense, and because elements of culture are always important.

So that is to say, not much change in identifying and membership.

If you’re really interested, check out Dmitri Orlov’s book Reinventing Collapse, which is about his observations about the Soviet collapse and the similarities and differences here.

I agree with @meiosis there will be sort of a slow burn effect mostly at state levels almost like what we are seeing now as states struggle one by one to meet and or create workable budgets. The Fed will be required to prop up these failing state economies and there will be a breaking point and one one by the states will secede and demarcate their economies and compete to preserve local tax dollars. Some states will do well others will go bankrupt.

In reality, the US is too large to really ever fail and fall….just will never happen.

Its to the point now, that most of the states are depending too heavily on the Federal Government for just about everything. its like i have stated on my answers, that what goes around, comes around. you cannot spend what you do not have.

When empires have fallen in past history, the vacuum was quickly filled through conquest. So if the USA truly falls, it will likely be conquered from some outside entity.