Things are Bad When the Army is Your Backup Workforce

When cammies replace scrubs at your local hospital.

Image courtesy of iStock.

The past few months have seen much talk about product shortages due to the labor shortage (a misnomer is ever there was one) and the supply chain debacle. Horror stories from grocery stores and photos of unstocked shelves have been making the rounds on the more alarmist websites.

While there is some truth that stores aren’t getting 100% of what they ordered on time, that might just be a sign that retailers (and by proxy, consumers) had outlandish demands that just-in-time logistics were only able to meet by creating huge externalities that didn’t show up on a corporate balance sheet, such as air and water pollution, slave labor, vast material waste, etc.

However, the labor and supply crunches are starting to have the type of catastrophic impact we fear in a few critical areas, to the point where governments are considering bring in the army to help alleviate the pressure.

And anytime the military comes in to help with a domestic issue, you know things are bad.

England’s Petrol Woes

Across the country, English gasoline stations are running out of fuel, with a majority of them completely sold out.