I’ve noticed that a deli where we routinely get sandwiches has switched to using cheaper, flimsier paper to wrap them.

To compensate for the flimsy paper, the sandwich makers have started using two sheets of it.

I am sure an executive somewhere got a bonus for that. Saving money, donthca know.

And yet no money is being saved and customers aren’t any happier. Instead, time is wasted, processes are less efficient and everyone is unhappy.

That sums up the imperatives and manias of modern American business in one example.