It’s a question I have heard frequently—perhaps daily—for over ten months: “When is life going to get back to normal?” Sometimes it takes other forms: “Will things ever get back to normal?” “Is this going to be the new normal?” The civil unrest of earlier this year, the political angst...

Visualize a large manufacturing plant in your town or city that produces shoes. The management has invested great sums of money and many man-hours into the plant to produce the finest shoes possible. Money has been spent on salaries for the employees, machinery for shoemaking, and materials from which the...