I’ve heard it said that as people get older, they become more of what they are. Because of the unmistakable fragility that has been revealed over and over again during The Trump Pandemic, I am inclined to believe that the exact same truism is true of both structures and infrastructures. I don’t exactly need to proof-text it for you, but here are a few examples. The Small Business Loan Relief program ran out of money—partly because large, corporate restaurant chains scooped disproportionate amounts of the fund. They have teams of attorneys and staff to deal with the paperwork, and long-term credit relationships with banks. Generally speaking, Mom and Pop do not. More than 22 million people have applied for Unemployment Insurance since the stay-at-home orders began. State governments have stripped state unemployment offices down to the bare minimum. They can’t process normal claim numbers. Certainly, not abnormal ones either. Don’t get me started on the abysmal interface between state and federal unemployment systems.

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