The ruptures in the fabric of America’s culture can be traced on the year-end sales logs of a German automaker.

Volkswagen sold very few Passats, Jettas, and Golfs in 2021 (a 10-year sales low), mostly because they made very few of them. There was a microchip shortage, you see, which was why ordinary people couldn’t buy a new car and so had to pay a massive premium for used cars.