Got it in one. The only “changes” thus far have been slight alterations to the status quo to preserve it just a bit longer, to tamp down discontent ever so slightly so the boat doesn’t capsize. The Affordable Care Act was meant to appease the masses after bailing out the financial sector’s gambling problem, while unchecked stimulus payments were intended to appease the masses during COVID, knowing full well it would drive inflation as it was siphoned from the masses into the pockets of the wealthy. Here, too, the masses will be given a bone of sorts to appease them when their civil liberties are run roughshod or eliminated altogether, likely in the form of some financial stimulus for housing that just ends up in the hands of the wealthy again anyway.

The real underlying problem the United States faces is the reckoning of the American Dream against reality. It’s not possible for everyone to be a billionaire, to have a huge home on a large plot of land, to drive luxury SUVs and rent out a second home for passive income. Yet as long as Americans (and people in general) still believe that dream really is attainable, if they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work longer hours and take more risks, then the status quo will merely continue to crumble at its foundation until a sudden and violent collapse of the structure occurs.