The Elites are Out of Touch: Another Example

The Economist publishes a "right track/wrong track" graph by country:

Western democratic and international institutions look increasingly fragile. A recent survey of 25 countries by Ipsos MORI, a pollster, reveals the widespread discontent on which populists have preyed. In Britain and America 60% and 63% of respondents said their country was on the wrong track. In perpetually disgruntled France, that figure is a whopping 89%.

Note the wording: "populists have preyed." Populism, according to the Economist, is surging because the hoi polloi don't realize that they have it pretty good:

In France, the proportion of people who worry about unemployment is five times the actual rate of the unemployed. In Britain, anxiety over immigration is more than three times higher than the percentage of the population who are immigrants. Telling voters that things they worry about are bad, but not as bad as they think, is unlikely to win over a sceptical public.

Comments:

1) Maybe the huddled masses did buy in to the talk of unprecedented, extreme inequality. Populism takes from the rich and gives to the poor, so it's puzzling why progressives wouldn't approve of populist trends.

2) Not one country has climate change (formerly known as global warming) as its biggest concern, and this despite nearly two decades of sermonizing by academic experts, Hollywood celebrities, leading scientists, and globalist politicians that the end of the world is nigh. What will it take for the great unwashed to learn from their betters what is good for them?

3) Another interpretation: institutions are fragile, but democracy is strong.

(BTW, I did not vote for Donald Trump.)