Once again the current problems grinding the economy to a halt is the legacy of decades of cheapskate policies by various businesses to cut costs and maximize profits. The plague has killed 700,000 people primarily in the food service and retail sectors, businesses of all stripes for decades have been keeping labor costs low by running skeleton crews on all shifts, businesses of all stripes have been keeping circulation costs low by keeping scant inventory on hand that relies entirely upon being restocked on time by logistics, businesses of all stripes have been keeping labor costs low by paying workers dogshit wages (especially jobs with awful conditions like TRUCKERS). The logistics system of the world has since at least the 90s relied upon shipping goods and raw materials all over the world to be manufactured overseas but sold and consumed here, and is incredibly fragile to the point that minor disruptions to any one of these factors anywhere in the world can lead to major disruptions down the chain. Usually these disruptions are temporary and pass on, but again there is still a fucking PLAGUE rampaging through the world and it is affecting ALL of these factors EVERYWHERE. This in turn is causing severe disruptions to the entire world logistics chain and thus chronic shortages and delays.