Ohhh, you hit on a rant button of mine! Yes, the economy is shithoused, but not in the "ther urnt ner jerbs nuh moe" sense. I mean in the sense that it is broken on a funamental, basic level. Its foundational assumption is that there will be consistent growth, but money's a finite resource that only becomes more available if there's more people to spend it. Ergo, to see a modern economy continue to function (that is: not stagnating), there needs to be consistent growth in the population.
Unfortunately, as one might be aware, there's a teeny, tiny, itty bitty, not-so-small-at-fucking-all problem in that we're rounding second base and asking if overpopulation has any condoms. Sooo, the only thing that could compensate for this, given the current economical model? Monetizing more things that were, at one time, considered public, non-profit (or, at least, not-for-profit) services. What's that give ya? Private prisons, the effective return of debtor's prisons, privatized education and healthcare, and more and more until...well, something gives. Either the economy collapses, we enter some kinda cyberpunk dystopia, or we see a fundamental, radical shift in our economic bearing. Well, that or the nukes start flying and we're stuck fighting mutated roaches and crazed, radioactive bears.