The Second World?

Here and there I see references about the USA turning into a "Second World" country, by analogy with the rarely used Second World concept of days before "emerging markets" displaced "Third World" as a description of lower-wealth, low industrialization countries of the global south, broadly. The Second World was, broadly, what was behind the Iron Curtain, so the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. As far as material conditions went, the Second World was broadly characterized by shortages, standing in line and -- as a result -- inventiveness in keeping old stuff working and figuring out kluges and workarounds.

I was reminded of this yesterday evening when, after going to pick up the old Subaru which I had left at the mall when my Prius was getting inspected (I also got new tires, so that now she hugs the road like a sure-footed mountain goat!), I went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription. The pharmacy was closed, and there was a notice posted that because of staffing shortages the pharmacy would for the time being be open M-F 9-6. i.e. no weekend hours at all. With built in lunch hours for the pharmacists. This is down from M-F 9-9 and weekends 9-6, something like that. So basically a 45% cut in hours of operation. Lines will no doubt be longer, and we will have to plan more carefully for when to go. Likely apps will appear telling us when lines are longest. There was also a sign posted saying that there were $1250 referral bonuses for successful referrals of pharmacy technicians.

Then this morning there's a story in the Journal that CVS is shutting down 900 stores out of 10,000 and will focus on upgrading medical services at existing stores. Walgreens had already been reducing its store count. No doubt stores closures will be concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods, like the one on Greensboro where I got my COVID vaccines, because the top lines and margins there will be shittier.

Does this make for a Second World experience for us? Far from it, just yet. Relative to the rest of the world we still have a veritable cornucopia of goods and services available to us. But it is getting harder to get them. Our problems are now on the supply side. We need more people -- thus more immigrants -- but also more places for them to live -- which means less restrictive zoning so we can put up more housing units. Re zoning rubber and road will continue to meet around issues of stormwater management, impermeable surfaces, and heat islands. Plus there's a lot of asphalt out there around office parks that is being slowly but inexorably reclaimed by mother nature. It may well be that the process should be accelerated with yellow steel to let the earth breathe in places where people are not going.