I needed my car serviced. The next available appointment at the dealer where I bought car was a week later. I brought car in Wed. am. By Fri. pm work was not started, and I was told my car was still 20th in the queue. I asked why the inordinate delay in what was top service department. I was told they were unable to hire enough service techs. The advisor remarked, “Who wants to work when the government pays you not to work?”

I phoned on Saturday, when the service department is said to be open. All I got was an automated menu, but no human being was available after prolonged waiting. And there was no email address. The company was, in effect, incommunicado, an odd way to do business. And if things don’t change, they won’t be in business much longer.

When a restaurant can’t hire enough servers, and the service is slow and spotty, it’s annoying. When a car dealer can’t service the vehicles they sell, and a needed repair is delayed for weeks, it’s serious, possibly dangerous.

If my thermostat were stuck closed instead of open, my car would be undriveable. If the brakes needed repair, it might be dangerous. On my old car, I could replace the thermostat myself in 20 minutes. The new car requires hours of skilled and expensive work – a coincidence?

• Line one: Things become more complex and harder to repair and keep in service.
• Line two: People become less willing to work or to be trained to work, because the government offers them prolonged unemployment payments and rent relief.

The lines are diverging. If they diverge much further, we won’t need another pandemic, or nuclear war, or a climate emergency. We will simply implode, with iPhones from China we can’t replace, medicines from India we can’t manufacture, immobilized vehicles we can’t repair, and restaurants where we can’t find a server, but it’s okay because we can’t find a cook, either.

Not with a bang but a whimper.