I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Think about it. You have looked at only a few small parts of an immense system.
Even a great philosopher in a much simple world saw the role of the “Invisible Hand”,
I sure don’t pretend to understand it even at a macro-macro level, but from a common sense standpoint there’s something that just doesn’t make sense to me:
Starting from the assumption that we’re a capitalist economy and that every company wants to thrive - sell products and make a profit doing so - why is EVERY industry seemingly so screwed up? Yes the pandemic shutdowns were highly disruptive, but that started in Q2 2020 and here we are in Q4 2021 with massive problems. Hasn’t everyone had time to get settled and back to work? I’ll use semiconductors as an example because the natural flowtime for a wafer run is measured in weeks, which should mean there was a time when chips weren’t available but then companies caught back up. Except they haven’t and leadtimes are longer now than a year ago. I just can’t understand why, no matter how long the pipe is, after you shut the water off for a while but then turn it on again, water’s got to come out the end!
You don’t have to understand or control the entire economy. And I’m not advocating controlling the entire economy.
Supply shortages can be easily traced and the root cause determined. It’s not that hard.
You can address things like California’s new regulations on the trucking industry that have impacted the supply of trucks servicing the ports. You can issue temporary waivers, Relax the deadlines, subsidize the upgrades, whatever. But it can be addressed. In this case you’re getting out of the free market’s way, not controlling it.
Likewise, over reliance on foreign countries can be addressed by restoring the import tariffs. Again you don’t have to control the free market. But tariffs are a lever, that our founding father’s understood, that can protect and build American industries. Again, not controlling every or any decision of the free market. But setting the ground rules of the marketplace to avoid overreliance on foreign countries.