The depression was psychological. It spread as easily as dandelion seeds floating on a breeze. It seeped into every aspect of American society until it finally impacted the economy.

The worldwide economic collapse didn’t start here. It resulted from the confluence of several factors that had been percolating for years and exploded with the pandemic, which finally caused our markets first to freeze, then to begin the long decline. The damage throughout Europe began with Brexit, followed by the anarchy in Venezuela that eventually bled into other South American nations, the unchecked Russian aggression, the relentless Chinese economic expansion, the political unrest throughout the third world, and the growing belligerence of Iran against the OPEC nations and North Korea against South Korea and this country. All of this was made significantly worse by the mass migration of desperate populations caused by war and climate change. The coronavirus finally collapsed the already weakened global economy. The vaccine might have stabilized the situation had the drought not led to famine, which devastated the remnants of the third-world economies. The result was global insecurity, which morphed into global instability.

But what actually caused the collapse was fear—the fear that finally reached the street. As long as we all held hands, sang “Kumbaya” by the campfire, and ignored reality, somehow we kept chugging along. I’ll tell you the event that I believe made a significant difference. In late August 2022, just as the economy was stabilizing, Amazon received an order for a Kenmore microwave from Mr. and Mrs. Rob and Jeni Farwell of Mesa, Arizona. It was one of about 13 million microwaves that were sold in America that year. Rob Farwell had placed the order online. It was forwarded by Amazon’s internal computer system to the computers operating their warehouse. A robot in the Phoenix fulfillment center was directed to pick the item off the shelf and place it on a truck. The self-driving truck delivered it to a warehouse in Mesa. From there, the self-operating mini-system delivered it to the Farwells’ address, depositing it in the Nest delivery security system. An alert was sent to both Rob’s and Jeni’s cell phones, informing them that their new microwave was waiting on their front porch. The Nest locked it in its secure box until one of the Farwells got home and opened the box with their password. It was a dazzling display of technology. Not a single human being touched that carton from the moment the order was placed to its delivery a day later. Amazon was justifiably proud of this display of excellence and boasted about it on a Super Bowl commercial.

But the estimated 110 million people who saw that commercial had a very different reaction: Not a single human being touched that carton from the moment the order was placed to its delivery a day later. They were horrified. They saw their jobs disappearing. Rather than marveling at this feat, they wondered how anyone was going to be able to pay for the microwave. Any hopes that the jobs that had been destroyed by Covid-19 would be coming back disappeared that day.