I agree with Amartya Sen. There is really no such thing as a famine, the difficulty is in distribution, hoarding and politics. I have been thinking about this as I have been looking to find a pair of eclipse glasses this morning. I honestly didn’t thing it would be this difficult. They are very cheap and easy to make. Yet every place I call is furious and rude because of the hundreds of calls they are receiving daily. This is not beanie babies. The solar eclipse is a once in an I don’t know what event. There should have been more than enough glasses so that anybody who wanted to see them could see them. Instead it is turning into an extreme shortage situation. It is taking what should be a wonderful, shared event and turning it into something colder, meaner, crueler. Everything has to be turned into a competitive jungle.
How did we get this way? What has gone so wrong with our society that we cannot even provide eclipse glasses for everybody who wants to see it? It shouldn’t have been hard. Everything does not need to be a competition with winner and losers. For those of you saying I should have gotten them earlier — quite and American thing to say. My response — why?