The world absolutely can survive without the Dollar as the reserve currency. China and many other countries would eventually be fine without it. The US would eventually recover, too (although probably not to where we are today). The problem is that the transition would be very very painful.
I think the transition from everybody being continually robbed to everyone not being continually robbed will not be as painful as you think.
Good point
tee-rex : savings are good, consuming on credit is bad
What about savings versus direct consumption? Which one is better? You won't get away with this question so easily.
Correct but you cannot have a healthy economy with increasing salaries (in real terms!) and increasing standard of living if you consume on credit but your industry is stable or decreasing, your taxes are going up, your trade&public deficit are going up, your unfunded liabilities is going up, the number of employed people compared to the total of the population is going down and the quality of the jobs is going way down (look at the last jobs reports : mostly part time jobs and full time jobs are destroyed at an alarming rate!)
You didn't answer my question...
In the states it would be healthier and better for the economy in a long term perspective if consumers were saving more and consuming less
So you are essentially saying that producers should bear losses or withstand profits shrinking (since people would spend less and save more), and that would serve the economy better in the long run, right?
Am saying that going into debt to consume is extremely bad for the economy; nations that succeed like the USA before are nations of savers, producers, a stable country with a strong currency; you cannot consume with debt forever, it ends badly so the USA would fair better in long run if consumers were not going into debt to consume like it used to be; you use to save to buy something