But yet: The store shelves were empty while the janitorial and institutional supply chains had a surplus. We were incompetent at moving things from Pile A and putting them into Hole B.
So, sure: In the event of an unprecedented geomagnetic event destroying big chunks of the grid, we're hosed. I agree. And people will die. It will be awful. If I'm sure of one thing, I'm sure that we'll somehow manage to completely fuck this up.
So maybe we should focus less on stockpiling a bunch of ludicrously-expensive parts that we hope to never have a use for. Instead, maybe we should focus more on making the grid less reliant on centralization, and instead comprise it of smaller parts that that can be operated more-independently.
Both things are very expensive.
One of them is a reactive solution to a problem we've never had -- and that we hope to never have. The other is a proactive solution we can start using immediately, and also into the future.
(An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.)