Let's Have a Pressure-Free Holiday Season
With record high inflation, ongoing supply chain issues, and nearly two years of pandemic stress atop the usual holiday madness, maybe we can give ourselves a break this year.
As we fastly approach the holidays there seems to be a bit of tension in the air. This time of year is known to bring a fair amount of stress at the best of times, but after x-amount of months (who can keep track anymore?) of a ceaseless pandemic, along with the many policies and restrictions which accompanied it — and now the repercussions of such an event — this time, it feels like it’s brought a little more stress than usual.
Or is that just me?
2020 was a devastating year not just for our economy, but also for the global system we’ve all come to rely on. Despite politicians, pundits, and talking heads on TV giving Covid all the credit, government-imposed lockdowns carry the vast majority of the blame. There’s no doubt that the pandemic alone would have had an effect on the economy but to what extent, however, is impossible to know for sure.
People — on their own — probably would’ve stayed in more, making it less likely for them to have engaged with certain sectors of the economy. Live entertainment, museums, restaurants; pretty much anywhere that contains crowds of people for reasons that aren’t essential for survival, would most likely have been impacted more than places like grocery stores, for example. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone would have avoided taking those risks. I know for a fact that many people would’ve still willingly taken part in some of those activities had they simply been allowed to choose for themselves, but I digress.
The reality of the situation is that many businesses the world over were forced to close down for vast amounts of time, with restrictions that were often arbitrary, sporadic, or based on nonsense. Following that, the Federal Government decided to bail out the American people from its self-imposed recession by injecting trillions of dollars into an economy that had been doing fairly well just a short while earlier.
These decisions came with trade-offs, as they always do. The immediate effects were seen and easily identifiable (remote work/school, the shuttering of nonessential businesses, and stimulus checks in our bank accounts) but the long-term effects weren’t so obvious to a lot of people. That doesn’t mean they weren’t predictable, however. You cannot shut down half of the economy and print trillions of dollars in a matter of months without there being consequences.
Forcing factories, plants, warehouses, and many other types of businesses to either shut down completely or drastically lower their workforce capacity at a moment’s notice was a major shock to the system. Obviously, there were shortages early on (who could forget the Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020?) but those months of disruption will have ripple effects that we’ll continue to feel for quite some time.
The lockdowns’ effect on the supply chain is only part of the problem, however. Another issue is vaccine mandates exacerbating worker shortages in trades that we rely on for our supply chain to function properly. There are also union rules unnecessarily preventing docks from operating 24/7 to help ease some of the pressure at the ports. All of this is on top of the fact that far more people have been doing more of their shopping online — an already growing trend that was accelerated by the pandemic — creating more demand for this very stressed system.
The other major cause of extra tension this holiday season is rising inflation at a rate we haven’t seen in more than 30 years. The trillions of dollars that have been printed recently are causing the dollar itself to lose value, meaning it takes more dollars to purchase the same amount of goods. This is a big part of why we’re seeing higher prices for an array of different items, including most everything that goes into your typical Thanksgiving Dinner. Obviously, the aforementioned supply chain issues have also caused prices to fluctuate.
I for one, see this as an opportunity. I’ve often felt overwhelmed by the amount of consumerism that takes place during the holidays, and maybe this is a good year to pump the brakes on our seemingly increasing desire for material items. I’m not saying to forgo gift-giving and receiving, just that we be a little more mindful of what it takes to make these traditions, and much of our day-to-day life, possible. We should all be thankful for the standard of living that global trade helps to provide.
I also think this is a good time to return the focus of this cluster of events back to where it should be: a reason to gather with friends, family, and those we care about. Isn’t that the main incentive for gifts anyway? It’s our way of showing others we appreciate them in our lives. In my opinion, taking away some of the financial pressure that comes with this time of year is just as good a way of showing someone you appreciate them.
Obviously, we all love gifts; both giving them away and getting them yourself. The look on the other person’s face when you give them a great present is a gift all its own, and who doesn’t like getting awesome stuff? Especially when it’s something you wanted or needed. Even so, I think it’s fair to say that the obligation to purchase material items might have too much of a share of the energy we put into this time of year.
I also think that for the items we do purchase, maybe we should try our best to shop at smaller or more local stores. Larger companies were allowed to remain open throughout much more of the pandemic than mom and pops were, so this is a good excuse to send some much-needed revenue to the small businesses that were fortunate enough to survive the lockdowns. Even though they don’t have the money to charter their own cargo ships through smaller ports — unlike larger companies — I would argue that small local businesses deserve our support, even if it means risking a late Christmas present.
We’ve all had a stressful couple of years, and we shouldn’t add any more to our already heavy burden. This holiday season should be used to celebrate with our families and friends. We should all be grateful that we’ve been able to endure such a trying time and we should all try to show some empathy to those who have people in their lives who didn’t. Many people have suffered severe losses throughout this pandemic including loved ones, jobs, family businesses, and much more. Now, we all have to deal with the repercussions of the economically devastating pandemic policies enacted by bureaucrats and politicians. The stress from the past and the anxiety of the future is enough to worry about, and I see no reason to add more stress on top of it. This year, I think we all deserve a pressure-free holiday season.
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