> What I care about is that when I go to book a driving test, I can get one. I could do that pre-2020. I now can't.
Sounds like a supply and demand problem. The marker solution would be to increase wages for driving testers and attract more candidates to these positions.
The alternative was mass unemployment, it would have taken two decades to re-prime the pump. So the alternative to such a large shock was either ~5 years of inflation / stagflation largely caused by supply side issues (can't get a driving test, can't get employees, can't get something shipped from China, etc), or a two decade (a la 30s / 40s) rebuilding the economy from scratch.
And (as a side issue) you shouldn't be surprised that large scale uncontained shocks lead to war. Look at the drought in Syria from 2006 to 2010. Look at the largely global economic shock in the 30s. If you want to see what a systemic supply shock can do to economies at scale have a look at the complete collapse in the lead up to 1177 BC.
So a large systemic shock like COVID will need to be "paid for", and the choices are "a very big bill" or "a catastrophic bug bill". I suspect that you feel that life was fine pre COVID and you were happy with your lot. And now you're not, you wish it was back the way it was (e.g. you can book a test). So since we had interventions (most "imposed" on us), post hoc ergo propter hoc the interventions are bad.
So my suggestion is to do a root cause analysis and realise that humans (both individually and collectively) are bad at dealing with black swans, even when we know it will come (sooner or later). And secondly, even if you don't like this human short coming and you wish that someone would just "get a grip" of the situation so you don't have to deal with something you don't like, it might help to have a bit more empathy towards people trying to help.
This is pure anecdote. Any evidence of this besides personal experience? I've had a WFH job since before COVID and everyone seems very engaged in what they're doing.
During the 1860s the average work day was 16 hours, 311 days a year (4976).
During the 1920s the average work day was 8 hours, 243 days a year (1944, and productivity was up according to Henry Ford).
Most tech employers in China pre COVID, 10 hours a day, 297 days a year (2970).
Netherlands pre COVID, 5.8 hours a day, 234 days a year (1357).
US pre COVID, 6.9 hours a day, 239 days a year (1649).
Which one of the above examples cared the most about their jobs? Which was the most productive? In terms of business profit PPP? And wage PPP?