The Country That’s Teaching Us How Not to Survive the 21st Century

Why You Can’t Get (LOL) Vegetables in Britain

Image Credits: 1, 2

How much of a failed state can a rich country become? Just ask Britain. In case you haven’t been on Twitter lately or checked the news — who could blame you — something remarkable’s been happening. Brits…can’t get…vegetables. Not in the modern sense, anyways. Major British supermarkets are now…LOL…rationing vegetables.

Sir, you’re allowed just one cucumber. I kid, but it’s not a joke. Whoever thought that one of the world’s richest and most powerful nations could end up here? After all, vegetables aren’t even rationed in most poor countries, as far as I know. You have to head to the territory of hardcore failed states — some of which don’t even exist anymore, because failed states well, fail — to find an analog. The Soviet Union, of course, and its breadlines, springs to mind.

This is jaw-dropping stuff. And yet Brits, by now…take it in their stride. They’ve become accustomed to it, in a way that’s even more unsettling than, perhaps, the phenomenon of state failure itself. That’s another level entirely: social collapse, when people glumly accept their fate, or joke about it, but don’t do much to change it, because, well, the end of the story seems foretold. Together, these two things are head-spinning — that you can’t get vegetables in one of the world’s richest countries, and that…that’s made out to be…normal. OK. Totally cool. Hey, it’ll pass, right?

But it was the great John Maynard Keynes — ironically, from the sceptered isle — who famously said, “in the long run, we’re all dead.” Maybe you see the point. It is eminently not normal to get accustomed to…this.

What’s “this,” though? Well, it’s not just vegetables you can’t get anymore in Britain. It’s a long, shocking list of things. Not “things,” in any old sense, though — the economist in me would call them “basics.” Ambulances, doctors, nurses, healthcare, money to pay the bills, and now…food. Brits struggle to get all of these things. Think about that for a second, and I mean really think about it. In a developed, rich nation…accomplishing basic life tasks…like getting healthcare…or buying vegetables…is now difficult, sometimes impossible. Because these things are all rationed — and that, in turn, is because they’re all in shortage.

Shortages of that kind? Such widespread ones? Shortages of everything from ambulances to food?

It’s utterly shocking to see this happen to a rich country, and I know I just said that, but from Brits, you don’t get the impression that they fully get it. This should not be happening. It shouldn’t happen anywhere, not even in poor countries, but in one of the world’s most powerful ones? LOL. It’s mind-boggling.

So why is all this happening? Why does Britain have widespread shortages of all the basics now? I’m going to answer that in a second, but by way of a little context.

Imagine that tomorrow, President Biden announced that…LOL…vegetables would be rationed. Or if you want a precise analogy, imagine that supermarkets in America announced it. Within hours — minutes, maybe — soccer moms in every state would foam at the mouth, snarl in rage, quite possibly brandish AK-47s, and head to Congress. Riots would break out. The Kardashians would get involved. Hollywood would weigh in. Netflix would make a series about it. TMZ would shoot undercover videos at grocery stores. You get my drift. The entire country would be in an uproar.

But in Britain? It’s as if there’s pin-drop silence. Sure, there’s a little bit of chatter about it, on Twitter, but the norm is to minimize anyone discussing this problem. And it is a problem. Compounded by another one — these bizarre norms. You can’t get vegetables or ambulances…and worse…you’re not supposed to talk about why.