Why are people rich but angry?

Recent years, we can see that there is an increase in populism around the world; however, in many of such countries, people are actually enjoying higher incomes. For example, in the US, the unemployment rate reaches a historical low, meanwhile, in Netherland, a populist politician has become increasingly popular, and the incomes in Netherland increase. Even in the UK, the population voted to leave the European Union for change given the unemployment rate in the UK is also very low.

I have some hypothesis explanations about why people become richer but also angrier. Firstly, it may be caused by the wealth ceiling. In a society, people are very difficult to earn more wealth once their wealth reaches a certain level, which can be called as wealth ceiling. As these countries have already become rich enough, people find their income growth is in decline, and they do not find any opportunities to become super rich; therefore, they may look for social change. Secondly, people may no longer worry about not earning enough incomes. Instead, they are worried about how to maintain the current status and have a safe environment. Under such circumstance, the migrants become their enemies, as their coming may change the current status, as they could bring a threat to their job security and incomes. In addition, they are also worried about the social insecurity that may be brought by the increasing incoming migrants. Thirdly, the terrorism has become worrying. The news about terrorist attacks has been reported by all media. It is easier for bad stories to draw people's attention than for good stories. Although people are enjoying improved living standards, people are drawn attention to horrible stories. Moreover, the Internet helps to spread these horrible stories faster. And sometimes, people are more attracted to horrible stories rather than true stories, so people are likely to be misled by some "attractive and exciting" (in bad ways) stories.

Overall, once people's life standards reach a certain level, it is hard for ordinary strategies to make further improvement, so people may fancy more radical changes. In addition, people are likely to be influenced by some information that is "attractive" and horrifying but not necessarily true.