The wealth gap.

Only if somebody assigns value to it. There exists a market for chairs, which is why the chair maker chops down the tree. Suppliers operate on demand, though many ventures into new markets are somewhat speculative.

 

Generally true, but all transactions don't create wealth. The rate of business failure is quite high, IIRC.

We also have to factor in speculative transactions, and these can bring the entire economy to a halt as we saw with derivatives crashing Wall St.

 

No, you don't.

And the methods used to manipulate inflation statistics in Japan in the 70s and 80s might well be relevant to the methods used in the USA now. But you will never be able to understand how they could be relevant because you dismiss them as irrelevant without knowing anything whatever about them.

Right: you see no benefit to learning any facts outside the concrete range of the moment. You see no benefit to learning any history because, "That was then, this is now." You see no benefit to learning any world geography because, "Other countries are irrelevant to America." You see no benefit to learning any math because, "I'll never use it." You see no benefit to learning any other languages because, "Everything I want to know is in English." Etc. I get it: you don't know, and you don't want to know.

 

True. Speculative transactions aren't real wealth creation. Its rolling the dice on predicted growth.