My own impression is that you likely think it's being "papered over" because you live in California. If you lived out here in flyover country you'd probably be able to see that for a lot of people, there has already been a collapse of the old economic order. Things for a lot of people right now are not all that great around where I live.

A lot of them would love to be able to deliver groceries. Even that in some areas would be too risky though with the opioid epidemic being what it is around here.