The supply chain crisis has affected the availability of everything from groceries to medical supplies and cars. Yet there’s also a casualty that’s harder to quantify — our children’s imaginations. Parents everywhere are breaking the news to their kids not only that Santa doesn’t exist, but that the ungreased wheels of global capitalism mean their Christmas is likely canceled this year.

But if America’s kids might feel like they’ve been hardest hit by this development, it also provides a bitter lesson for the Left. For despite all the cries about the crisis facing supply chains — and the litany of social media shit posts about supply chain issues being the root of all life’s problems — this holiday season, logistics firms are still raking in record profits.

The current crisis — most acute in the United States but affecting the whole world — is an inevitable reality of a global system built around delivering goods anywhere on the planet, nearly instantly. Indeed, this is how a global supply chain network built around flexibility is designed to work: its very agility and pervasive coverage makes it inherently vulnerable to crisis. This is just the first truly major global production crisis it’s faced. Explosive demand, lingering pandemic shortages, and tight labor markets in key sectors (not to mention many workers weighing whether it’s worth turning up) are putting previously unseen strain on the system.