Inflation, supply chain issues, bare shelves...who coulda predicted this? Well, just about any rational informed person, actually... I don't consider myself prescient just pragmatic, realistic. Cynical, even. In April 2020, when all this was spooling up, I noted on social media that, paraphrased, "We better be real careful how we shut down this economic engine, because none of us has the starter battery and know-how to do it." Sadly, I was right. It's not that we are not smart; in aggregate, as a whole economy, we're remarkably intelligent. The things we're able to do as a collective macro-economy is incredibly immense : how is it that, prior to March 2020, anything that we could ever want was available to us on the grocery store shelf or even available as soon as same-day or (at worst) two-day delivery? How was that possible? Who designed that? "Who designed that?" Well, no one. An economy is not a "who" but a "what". And
When 140 Characters Just Isn't Enough...