President Biden should care that no one can find the new PS5 or Xbox

I don’t know what you think of when you read the word “microchip” or “semiconductor,” but I think of the Cold War. In particular, I think of the microchips inside of the early guided missiles. Like author Stephen D. Bryen explains in his book Technology Security and National Power: Winners and Losers, the United States pulled ahead during the Cold War in part because it’s the country that manufactured microchips. The USSR had no hope of replicating the complex processes that go into the fabrication of semiconductors. And that’s why President Biden should care that you and I are having a hard time finding the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Video games are frivolous entertainment, but they’ve also proven indispensable to many families and individuals throughout the pandemic. But the U.S. government doesn’t necessarily need to concern itself with console availability because people like the hobby. Instead, the issue is that the demand for consoles, GPUs, and CPUs creates demand for microprocessors that is disrupting huge segments of the economy.