Over the past few years we have maintained that by watching what is happening in other countries, we could "see" what was coming to America. From lock downs to specific food shortages to culture wars, many times what happens around the globe, like a contagion, starts happening elsewhere.

Granted that does not happen with everything with different laws in different nations, but when it comes to things like supply chain issues, or how a nation deals with a pandemic, we see world leaders mimic what others do, even when those actions were proven to be detrimental to the nation.

 Example: Covid, which originated in Wuhan, China, saw Chinese leadership locking people down, in some cases, locking them in their own buildings, refusing to the let them go shopping, or leave at all.

On 23 January 2020, the central government of China imposed a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei in an effort to quarantine the center of an outbreak of COVID-19; this action was commonly referred to as the Wuhan lockdown. The World Health Organization (WHO), although stating that it was beyond its own guidelines, commended the move, calling it "unprecedented in public health history".

That started a chain reaction of overreach and panic, from Asia, Australia and New Zealand nations, to European countries, to Countries in the Americas,  to sub-Sarahan countries in Africa. (See: Charts and how most the world went into lockdown)

Supply chain issues are another example, when one nation started seeing shortages, whether food or hand sanitizer or toilet paper, other nations followed because the 

As an aside: Preppers, at least those in America, attempt to be prepared for as many SHTF scenarios, weather events, terrorist attacks, grid down scenarios,  as possible by stocking up on foods, medications, water and other basic necessities.