Paradoxes

Here are a few paradoxes that defy reconciliation in my little gray cells:

How come productivity growth is so slow today in America when robots are supposedly taking over everywhere? Shouldn't robotics and AI be increasing output per man hour dramatically?

US tariff barriers in the 1920's are blamed for causing the Great Depression. Why have equally onerous tariffs erected by China, the world's second largest economy, not resulted in an equivalent economic meltdown?

Venezuela has a huge oil reserve worth trillions of dollars. If socialism is such a benign and beneficial economic system, how come Venezuela is going bankrupt and its people are starving? Where is all this national wealth disappearing to?

Why is it that Donald Trump is so often right, but seldom loved ... while Barack Obama is so dearly loved, but so rarely right?

How come the Southern Hemisphere is getting colder when it has a higher concentration of carbon dioxide than the Northern Hemisphere? Shouldn't it be getting warmer?

If women on average make less than men for equivalent work, how come that they now control well over 50% of the nation's private wealth?

If politicians are humble "pubic servants," how come most who enter office are of modest means yet leave office rich as Croesus?