Shortages, and what they tell us about ourselves
Folks of a certain generation, mine and the one before me specifically, are very fond of castigating the socalled “millennials” for their sense of entitlement and their unwillingness to do “work hard” and deal with the real world.
In the past, I myself have been chief among the publicans in this criticism. But, as an executive in a customer focused industry, I must say I have had occasion to revisit that opinion of late.
I deal with the realities of supply chain challenges on a daily basis, and I have had ample opportunity to have to explain to folks that the gadget, widget, or toy they want is simply not available right now. In my experience, the demographic most likely to go all “Karen” on the poor kid working the counter for a wage that will not pay the rent is not some millennial sipping an almond milk latte, no, that particular jackass is more likely to be some middle-aged old fart who thinks they have “earned” the right to permanent entitlement.
The fact of the matter is that the kid working the counter does not control what is in stock and what is not. If anyone is to blame, it is us and the generation before us who allowed the Captains of Industry to shut down every foundry, cotton mill, and machine shop from here to the Canadian border, and ship those jobs to whatever overseas hell hole happened to have the cheapest slave labor. And now, those under-endowed little slave masters are quite enjoying the shift in the balance of economic power.
And they are working us like the meth dealer who gave away enough dope to get his target hooked. And like any dope fiend we attack the innocent counter worker, cashier, or desk agent, when can’t get our fix, a cheap phone, cheap jeans, counterfeit handbag, or whatever. But we never attack the dope dealers, the ones who put us in this situation in the first place, the robber barons who mortgaged our economy to foreign dictators and the politicians who allowed it to happen. Oh wait, we voted for those same politicians. So, we really only have ourselves to blame. Karma is a ... well, you know what they say.
We have allowed entire generations of politicians, and the robber barons who own them, to play us against each other for so long that it has started to feel normal. As a result, the politicians reach for ever more egregious and divisive, not to mention intellectually bankrupt, slogans to keep up the hatred from which they and their puppet masters derive their power. Just as the dope dealer must keep spiking his product with ever more powerful compounds to keep his customers hooked. At least until they die or kill someone else in some drug, or cable news, induced paranoid rage.
The peddling of deadly ideas is not illegal of course. But it is the deadliest form of drug available to the human race, and has killed more people than all others combined, witness Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Benito Mussolini, Idi Amin, Vladimir Putin, Mullah Omar, and the “Reverend” Jim Jones, to name but a few. They all have one thing in common, they were able to stir up the hatreds and prejudices of their followers until those followers were willing to follow them straight into hell.
The one thing that could have protected the folks who followed the aforementioned psychos into infamy is a little empathy and a little understanding. The reason why dictators and despots work so hard to exacerbate hatred and prejudice is because, like many drugs, it suppresses both reason and morality, leading otherwise decent people to commit unspeakable sins, thereby giving power to the dictator, the despot, and the mass murderer.
The lesson, dear reader, is this. Take a good look in the mental mirror the next time the little widget you have your heart set on is not available. You are fortunate to be living in what is, so far, the greatest country in the history of men.
Do not take that for granted. And if you are the one browbeating the kid behind the counter because your little toy has not yet arrived from China, then YOU are the problem.