Without the handicap of looking at the world through the prism of fantasy the dynamics of what is going on in the world can be explained in less than a paragraph, usually in no more than three sentences.

Here is today’s situation.

The economy is chasing the stock market. The economy will follow the stock market anywhere it goes. Stock prices are high because of several decades of getting support from government policy.

At birth every person enters a race against reality. The resulting reality gap can become quite large. It does grow with constant nourishment. Reality falls way behind during a lifespan but it catches us all in the end. Reality gaps work the same way in the aggregate as they do on a personal level.

The political discontent we see comes from folks whose fantasies are threatened by potential changes in government policy. Folks with little or no political power get nothing from government anyway. They and their fantasies are validated by certain candidates and threatened by others. But, they get nothing regardless.

All enterprise is for profit. All legislation is for profit. Any activity that is done in the aggregate is for personal gain. Human nature assumes that motivations in government are more lofty than those in the private sector. Motivation is always for personal gain.

Experts are deemed to have far more prowess than they actually do. This keeps the overall population intimidated and respectful where no respect is warranted,  Experts are generally paid for the pretense of knowledge.

Complex explanations of social problems are never accurate but are just a way of avoiding cold realities.

Why has the income distribution in the United States become so skewed to the top? This happens when free market principles are replaced with something else. When that happens, people with abundant political power end up with most of the money.