How’s It Feel To Want and Not Get?
The coming shock to American Consumers
Admit it. Much of this country — The United States of America we’re talking about here — is spoiled rotten. Even those of us from working-class backgrounds who know what it’s like to have the gas or the lights or the telephone cut off because we didn’t (couldn’t?) pay the bill have still grown up surrounded by excessive amounts of everything.
This is the country where the poor die of diabetes, kidney failure, high blood pressure, and obesity surrounded by a thousand varieties of fast food.
And until very recently, every store was piled high with stuff.
Even the tiniest corner store in the poorest neighborhoods bulged with Twinkies, Old English malt liquor, Fritos, and sad bananas.
Then this little microbe showed up and everything changed.
Finding empty shelves at grocery stores at the beginning of our recent global pandemic was eye-opening. But we rolled with things as best we could. We stood in long lines outside stores and bought what was available. Some of us thanked our personal gods that the authorities considered liquor stores “essential”.
However, we thought this was just a hiccup. After this thing had run its course we’d get back to normal.
