For some strange reason, there is a labor shortage in the western world. One big shortage is truck drivers. The fuel shortage might be because the refineries cannot find drivers to deliver petrol or gas or benzine (eastern Europe term). More analysis needs to be done to find the real reason.

My hypothesis with Umair's readers is that Umair relieves them of any responsibility in this downward spiral. It is someone else's fault: Trump, Trumpists, UK Conservatives, UKers who vote conservative, big business, the wealthy, politicians, etc. Umair readers take great comfort in that they are the "wise" of society, but other people have the control. So when society does collapse, they can say "Umair told us so, and I saw it coming too." Being right doesn't matter in this case.

I sometimes dog on to Umair's popularity by asking for his solution--and then offering my solution: We need to build a new democracy! (yes, we have talked before about this). Unfortunately, this democracy requires a little effort and discomfort, like 10 hours a month and working with a few of your neighbors.

From what I have seen, Umair readers (and nearly all other political writers on Medium) would prefer society to collapse than to put in this effort.

So sad!