It can be difficult to get things that you want/need. It can also be difficult to get items to interested consumers. Getting the raw materials, processing said materials, crafting your product, shipping said product; so many steps, so many places for things to go awry. I work in the manufacturing industry, so I have first-hand experience in this. Even if you're doing your job, if the person ahead of you or the person after you isn't doing their job, the whole system can break down really quickly. And even if everyone is doing their jobs, stuff breaks down, which can be just as bad - if not worse - than employees not doing their jobs properly.
Not too long ago, we were making engines that would be shipped off to another facility in another town. However, early on we ran into a severe problem: we ran out of the boxes we use for shipping those engines. We literally cannot move this stuff off the production line, so we kept the line going for as long as we could filling it as fully as we could. Because we don't have the boxes, we can't send out the engines. Because we can't send out the engines, the other facility can't make the end product in a timely manner.
Another time, I ran out of a particular piece that goes onto the engine. I put an empty bin out, in the designated place, for the Materials people to collect and refill. That bin sat there for over AN HOUR. I put the other bin with the first one, and still nothing happened. I ran out of that part completely and was forced to escalate the matter to my superiors. It took around half an hour to get more of that part (and I'm pretty sure that was only because someone swiped the parts from the other production line). Materials did finally bring the (refilled) bins back, about an hour after they got picked up, and with half an hour left of our shift!
You go through the trouble of doing a thing, and then someone else does something (or fails to do something) and all your hard work is rendered meaningless. How often does that happen to a person over the course of their life? How many times a day does that happen across the globe?
Perhaps it's not a person at all; nature is utterly indifferent to our intentions. The world was here long before humans were. The universe itself is so vast and complex that what we do on a day-to-day basis in insignificant by comparison. Maybe that is why we obsess over such things as the supply chain (and the problems it presents): to convince ourselves we are important?
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