Meddling in affairs that are much, MUCH too big for them.
Way back when the Covid panic began, smart people pointed out that shutting down an economy was going to have unforeseen consequences. A modern economy is an incomprehensibly complex organism. Even turning off some parts of it for a short time will change the organism, resulting in downstream changes. It is why people who work with complex things are very careful about the changes they make. They accept that there is much about the system that they cannot known in advance.
Of course, the people in charge are sure they have it all figured out, so they just blundered ahead with their lock downs and new rules. Shutting down most of the restaurant industry and closing the schools. for example, radically altered the demand side of the food market. Suddenly, goods for the restaurant business had no demand, while demand for home products shot through the roof. This should have given them pause, but they kept blundering ahead with their schemes.
Anyone who has been in a grocery store of late knows that food prices are jumping like it is the 1970’s again. There are also weird shortages. Something like mayonnaise will disappear from the shelves for a week and then come back, but then plastic bags become scarce. The same phenomenon is happening with other things like building supplies and petroleum products. The official statistics are complete nonsense, so we have no idea how much food has jumped. It is enough that people are talking about inflation in private conversations for the first time in decades.
The usual suspects, of course, are spilling into the streets to chant about fiat currency, hyperinflation, and the rest of their stuff. It is as if the Great Pumpkin has finally risen out of the pumpkin patch. They have been waiting their whole lives for the Weimar moment foretold in the prophesies. Because these people are always wrong it is good to remember they are wrong now. The problem now is actually much worse than too much money chasing too few goods. It is systemic.
For starters, governments around the world have been taking sledgehammers to the global supply chain. These supply chains evolved over a long period of time to solve the problems of getting goods to the market. In response to Covid, government willy-nilly started turning things on and off without much thought. The system can respond to short term emergencies like natural disasters, but it was never equipped to respond to random outages imposed by people who have never had a job.
Then you have the stimulus plans. Having idled large swaths of the economy for periods, the same people frantically turning things on and off started pumping money into the retail side. At first this new money was absorbed in the system. Personal debt fell in 2020 as people got conservative in the face of the crisis. They also began to change their lives in response to the lockdowns. Going to the movies and out to eat is a habit, not a necessity. Lots of habits changed in 2020.
The upshot to all of this is we are seeing real inflation for the first time in generations, but we have a variety of causes this time. In the 1970’s, it was too much money chasing too few goods. Pulling money out of the economy was painful, but it worked. This time, we have too much money in some areas, but we have broken supply chains and labor markets contributing to the problem. The Fed cannot do anything about shortages of aluminum cans or chicken farm with too few chickens.
Why…why…why, WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN…?!?
When feckless, lackwit ProPols who are every bit as certain of their own brilliance and omni-competence as they are lacking in experience with the world outside the goobermint cloister stick their ten thumbs into matters they have absolutely no clue about, the resultant massive goat-fuck is commonly referred to as “unintended consequences.” In a system as complex and intertwined as a national economy, the catastrophe wrought by the hamfisted jiggery-pokery of such cretins will produce far-flung ramifications that can take years to wend their way through the national fabric, victimizing entire populations and ruining many millions of lives. The cascade of unwelcome effects brought on by in-way-over-their-heads politicians working the WuFlu powergrab are multifarious and unpredictable. For instance:
Lack of tanker truck drivers could lead to gas shortages this summer
With gas prices already surging this year, another fuel problem may soon be on the horizon.Some in the industry are now predicting a fuel shortage come summer. And it’s not due to a supply issue, but rather not enough tank truck drivers to move the fuel to gas stations.
CNN reported that industry group National Tank Truck Carriers said nearly 20% to $25% of tank trucks aren’t being used right now as there are not enough qualified drivers available. The year before the pandemic struck, that number was only at 10%.
The problem reportedly became magnified last year when Americans weren’t driving due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns, and gas stations just didn’t need as much gas. This meant truck drivers weren’t getting enough work and many chose to leave the business.
Also adding to the challenges is that the job requires a special certification and a certain amount of training. During the pandemic, many of the truck training programs were also shut down.
Bold mine, no further elaboration necessary. Remember, this is but one of innumerable examples of the knock-off effects caused by opportunistic ProPols fiddling about under the Covid cloak. Back over to Z for the grim conclusion.
None of this means there is no answer. Often, the right answer is to do nothing and let things run their course. That was the right answer with Covid. As with Covid, the rulers cannot accept that answer, so they will thrash around some more. The people animating the corpse of Joe Biden are promising to smash things up some more for the greater good. After all, what matters to them is that we know the people in the mansions and castles really care about us, while they live like royalty.
The result of all this is we are heading into a cruel summer. The bill for the Covid response is coming due. How a society responds to crisis is the result of the social trust in that society. America is a low trust society now. Further, the people who will be counted on to dig out of the mess created by the rulers are now treated like second class citizens by those rulers. The fix to the 60’s and 70’s was to first repair the loss of faith in the system. It is hard to imagine that happening this time.
It is at that…but it damned well ought to be, when you think about it. After all, loss of faith isn’t what needs fixing here, being only a perfectly appropriate response to a system that has become demonstrably unworthy of it. The best—probably the only—effective way to deal with the kind of untrustworthy, dysunctional dumpster-fire of a system this one has devolved into is to dismantle it, then start over with a new and hopefully better one. Probably the best way to get THAT project off to a good start would be to see to it that this time said rulers will damned sure NOT be allowed to evade the consequences of their monstrous conceit, for once in their worthless lives.
“Why…why…why, WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN…?!?”
Sad, ain’t it. Sounding all sorts of alarms at what government was doing and the economic destruction that would occur was just ignored by frightened people. 50+ years of not trusting government to do anything right, of watching the government screw up everything it touched, intentions good or bad, and suddenly massive numbers of people decided the government response was 1) correct and 2) they were being truthful.
Some have now woken up, but it’s too late. And some will never wake.
But hey, we were just “lucky” to have called this right from the very beginning.
Funny how we are so damn lucky all the time. It seems to go along with hard work somehow producing results. It’s just inexplicable.
And some will swear up and down that they were predicting this all along and blithely ignoring all of their statements from last year buying into it.
“Unforeseeable” secondary effects: Why Your Grocery Bills Are Going Up (And Are Only Expected to Get Bigger)
Why, but- but- who coulda known?
Me: The secondary and tertiary effects from this are going to be a LOT worse than the Corona-Chan damage – back in April/May 2020.
Bullshit. Food prices went up considerably more than that. I’m the one who buys the groceries and I keep records.
And overall inflation that I saw was much more than 1.3%.
IIRC, the inflation rate excludes food and energy, along with housing the three things that matter the most. And I’m not sure housing is included…
And yea, I know damn well the food I buy has gone up at least 10%.
The thing that puzzles me is how the much-lauded precautionary principle applies only to things that non-communists want. When it comes to any communist goal or action, it’s full steam ahead.
Funny, ain’t it?
It’s astounding.
“The best—probably the only—effective way to deal with the kind of untrustworthy, dysunctional dumpster-fire of a system this one has devolved into is to dismantle it, then start over with a new and hopefully better one.”
Familiar words – at least I hope they’re familiar – apply now:
“We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienables, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1776-1785/jeffersons-draft-of-the-declaration-of-independence.php
There’s other good stuff to read on that page, like this: “Here is a revolution as radical as that which separated us from Great Britain. It is radical in this transition; our rights and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the states will be relinquished: And cannot we plainly see that this is actually the case? The rights of conscience, trial by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges, are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change, so loudly talked of by some, and inconsiderately by others. Is this tame relinquishment of rights worthy of freemen? Is it worthy of that manly fortitude that ought to characterize republicans: It is said eight States have adopted this plan. I declare that if twelve States and a half had adopted it, I would, with manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it. You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your Government. Having premised these things, I shall, with the aid of my judgment and information, which, I confess, are not extensive, go into the discussion of this system more minutely. Is it necessary for your liberty that you should abandon those great rights by the adoption of this system? Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings-give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else … Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force: Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. …” http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1786-1800/the-anti-federalist-papers/speech-of-patrick-henry-(june-5-1788).php
If Patrick Henry were here today, what would he do? Same case for Jefferson…