Over the past month or so I’ve noticed more frequent mention of the cost of failure: what will happen if we don’t do this to save that. Explicit, or more often implicit, in these discussions is that it is right and good to do something, that something must be done. This something usually amounts to providing a social safety net so that the costs are avoided, so that Joe the Auto Worker, for example, does not lose his job, or so that if he does lose his job, he can still get medical care or retire in style.
The costs are terrifying.
Why, just today I learned that because a meat packer closed two plants it is now near impossible to find a kosher brisket!