With the media’s hyperactive three-ring circus blasting 24/7, it’s easy to forget that everything consequential is happening beneath the surface, out of sight and largely out of mind.

What’s going on beneath the surface is structural and systemic–for example, the fourth Industrial Revolution that is transforming the global economy and social order, regardless of political ideologies or our wishes.

Centralization–the “solution” to every problem since 1940–is now the problem. Centralization generates corruption, privilege, institutionalized rackets and pushes one-size-fits all failure down the chain of command.

Fragmentation and the De-Optimization of Centralization (January 2, 2017)

Another “solution”–issuing more costly credentials–has also failed. An over-abundance of credentials pushes wages down, even for the highly educated, while the credential mill of higher education has become a bloated, ineffective cartel that charges outrageous fees for increasingly valueless credentials.

The structural changes in the economy are visible in these charts:

The civilian participation rate is plummeting, despite the “recovery:”

The civilian participation rate for men is in a multi-decade decline:

As a percentage of GDP, wages have been declining for decades.

The rich have managed to gain wealth and income while the bottom 95% have gotten poorer as the cost of living soars and their wages stagnate.

There is more going on here than changes wrought by technology. Consider how many analysts identify central banks as a key cause of rising inequality and debt burdens. Consider how many people identify “money in politics” as a key factor in the corruption of governance. Consider how many people view “big government” as the force eroding civil liberties and imposing financial repression on all but the super-wealthy who influence Big Government with campaign contributions, lobbying, sweetheart contracts, revolving doors between government jobs and lucrative corporate positions, etc.