But the more we artificially inflate it, which is exactly what is going on now, the harder and faster it will fall when we stop being commie socialists and let the free market set share prices instead of the government.
The US economy is a mix of capitalism and socialism (so is China's, for that matter). The divide in the country is largely between those who prefer to lean capitalist and those who want to go full communist. And between those who want to keep traditional values and those who want to embrace full modern wokeness.
If we can't have peaceful elections, we're essentially a banana republic. The problem is the two sides each envision a completely different country.
More covid or flu just seems like a continuation of the rest of the year. More riots, same. So if we're going to have a third disaster it needs to be something different, like a natural disaster, a war, terrorism, economic collapse, something like that.