Let’s get simple.

The tripod, as any engineer can tell you, is the most stable structural form. If we want to be a society where substantially all of the population — the folks Bill Clinton used to say “play by the rules” — enjoy a decent and secure middle-class life, we need to build on three feet.

The first is a high level of unionization. It’s really very simple: Where unions are strong, working people live well, and where they’re not, they don’t.

The second is progressive taxation. The unregulated free market, which has been practically deified in this country in the last few decades, produces extreme inequalities. Progressive taxes counteract that. Again, very simple.

And the third is generous social spending — paid for by number two. Everywhere else in the developed world people don’t have to worry about being wiped out financially by health problems, or losing their shelter in a downturn. It just doesn’t happen.

What do these all have in common? They do not stand in awe of the “free market.” Yes, unions “distort” the market by artificially restricting the supply of labor. Yes, progressive taxation and social spending take from those who have “earned” in the market and gives to those who haven’t.

Know what? I couldn’t care less.