WaPo opinion piece suggests that American consumers should lower their expectations amid supply chain problems, worker shortages

As American consumers are forced to endure the fallout of problems like supply chain issues and worker shortages, Micheline Maynard, contributing columnist for the Washington Post, has a suggestion: People should lower their expectations.

"Across the country, Americans' expectations of speedy service and easy access to consumer products have been crushed like a Styrofoam container in a trash compactor. Time for some new, more realistic expectations," Maynard wrote in an opinion piece.

"American consumers, their expectations pampered and catered to for decades, are not accustomed to inconvenience," she noted.

"Rather than living constantly on the verge of throwing a fit, and risking taking it out on overwhelmed servers, struggling shop owners or late-arriving delivery people, we'd do ourselves a favor by consciously lowering expectations," Maynard proposed.

She noted that she recently had to carry a loaf of bread by hand because the bakery did not have any more bags, but while this experience may have irritated her in the past, now she was pleased that the store was still in business.

"The other day I found myself carrying home a loaf of bread in my bare hands because the bakery had run out of bags. Back when we didn't know how good we had it — circa 2019 — I might have been annoyed by the inconvenience. Now I was just glad the bakery was still in business," she wrote.

She noted that prior generations of Americans also faced shortages.

"American consumers might have been spoiled, but generations of them have also dealt with shortages of some kind — gasoline in the 1970s, food rationing in the 1940s, housing in the 1920s when cities such as Detroit were booming. Now it's our turn to make adjustments," Maynard wrote.

Many Twitter users sounded off on the matter, responding to a tweet that linked to Maynard's piece.

"Welcome to Joe Biden's America," Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted.

"'Try to lower your expectations' is becoming the theme of Joe Biden's America," former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows tweeted.

"Biden 2024: Just Lower Your Expectations, Man," tweeted Blaze Media social media editor Jessica O'Donnell.

"I use this argumentation form with my wife all the time. You could complain about towels on the floor and the toilet seat left up and me forgetting our anniversary, or you could lower expectations," Tim Carney tweeted.