ACTUALLY, THINGS ARE PRETTY GOOD, Glenn writes in his latest USA Today column:

Globally, we’ve changed that “normal condition” by the spread of free markets and free inquiry, which have led to a global growth in knowledge and skills that has made almost everyone rich by human historical standards. But we could revert to the “bad luck” norm if things went wrong, and they still might. Eternal vigilance, and all that.

The second point is that people haven’t caught up. Our brains are still wired, in large part, for caveman times: A time when the stock of wealth was largely fixed (hunter-gatherers couldn’t create more antelopes, or more berries), so that if one person had more, that inevitably meant that another had less, and when strangers — meaning, basically, the people over the next hill — had every reason to try to take it away from you. These two caveman attitudes produce the zeal for redistribution that is now marketed as socialism and the tribalism that is still a major part of politics.

Read the whole thing, to coin an Insta-phrase.