When my great grandmother from (at-the-time-Communist) Hungary visited us, she marvelled at all the selection at the grocery stores ... 50 brands and flavors of just about any product out there.
I feel like we're descending into becoming a 3rd world country ... in addition to having become a banana republic with an illegitimate and fraudulently-elected tinpot dictator.
I think about this every time I see shortages at our grocery store(s).
It's not just about there being NO food -- it's about there being only ONE kind of frozen microwaveable bowl dinner.
"What do you want, 50 varieties to choose from across 5 major brands of frozen microwaveable bowl dinner"?
My answer is an un-ironic "YES!" This is supposed to be A) America B) in peacetime, C) with no nationwide natural disasters going on, D) in a free country without the Communist yoke, the land of opportunity, where anyone with a good idea (or recipe) can go into business, and if there sufficient demand, a viable business and living can be made.
I know my emphatic "YES" makes me sound a bit spoiled, and my complaining about lack of choices sounds like a classic "first world problem". (But now that I think about it, I don't like that "First World Problems" meme. It's preparing us to accept our place among the Third Worlders.) The fact is that it's a valid question: Why SHOULDN'T there be 50 varieties of microwave bowl available at my grocery store? If we're moving to a more sustainable society, where men are paid more, women stay at home with the kids, everyone owns a modicuм land and grows a small amount of their own produce -- then sure, I can do without. I'm willing to give up some of my American luxury for a more sane and Catholic world. But that's not our world.
Given the modern world we actually live in, there is NO REASON why we shouldn't have that kind of variety in our stores.I'll never forget the Soviet "gum" that someone brought in to class when I was in school. I didn't try it, but it was quite nasty, according to the students who did.