Voters in modern democracies tend to support politicians who draw the most beautiful pictures of how a fair and prosperous economy would operate. The more clearly a candidate can vocalize popular desires for upward mobility, lower living costs and deterrence of fraud and greed, the more likely they are to be elected. As the quip attributed to George Burns, Groucho Marx and others puts it: “The secret of life is sincerity and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
