TEACHABLE MOMENTS

One of the greatest surprises of the Covid-19 pandemic, at least so far in this year of never-ending surprises, has been the shopping sprees. Amid the most widespread public health crisis in a century, Americans can’t seem to spend money fast enough to acquire two things in particular: boats and dogs.

The boats started flying out of dealerships in May, about two months after the earliest Covid-19 shutdowns. As those initial safer-at-home orders started to ease and the calendar turned to summer, dealerships reported a frenzy of buyers. The trend only intensified throughout the summer, well into August. Even as pandemic hot spots exploded across the South and West and unemployment numbers soared, boat dealers reported being virtually wiped out of inventory.

“When people are faced with