Current State of Affairs

This quote was given by J Reuben Clark (in the first presidency) June 9, 1940 in the tabernacle to the MIA (youth).  It was reprinted in the July 1940 Improvement Era.  In other words, this is not general conference scripture, but it is as close as you can get to that: first presidency and reprinted by the Church in its "Ensign" equivalent.
He was speaking of the Jaredites in Ether 14:1-2 (and later Mormon 1: 18-19; 2:10 about the Nephites).  These verses talk about the curse of the land that did not allow them to keep their riches.  I always assumed the earth somehow opened up and swallowed them, but he gave this explanation.

The quote:

“We are not given the step-by-step backsliding of this Jareditic civilization till it reached the social and governmental chaos the record sets out, but those steps seem wholly clear from the results. Put into modern terms, we can understand them. First there was a forsaking of the righteous life, and the working of wickedness; then must have come the extortion and oppression of the poor by the rich; then retaliation and reprisal by the poor against the rich; then would come a cry to share the wealth which should belong to all; then the easy belief that society owed every man a living whether he worked or not; then the keeping of a great body of idlers; then when community revenues failed to do this, as they always have failed and always will fail, a self-helping by one to the goods of his neighbor; and finally when the neighbor resisted, as resist he must, or starve with his family, then death to the neighbor and all that belonged to him. This was the decreed 'fulness of iniquity' (Ether 2:10).” 

I found this very interesting considering the current state of the world - almost prophetic. :)
And interesting to think where we are along that little timeline.