After you end a relationship with a woman, you will perceive her as being more valuable, than you did when you were with her.
Why?
Scarcity...
As soon as your relationship with her is over, you cannot have her anymore (regardless of whether you left her or she left you), so you view her as being more Scarce than you did back when you were with her
Believing America's Capitalist Economy is a Meritocracy
is like believing that 'Unconditional Love' exists.
One can easily verify that a significant percentage of Rich Americans made their money via illicit means.
Notice the word 'Illicit', not 'Illegal'.
America is a society where bankers who manufacture mortgage loans they know are going to go bad get paid more than nurses who heal the sick.
America is a society where the executives of pharmaceutical corporations that sell opioids that destroy more lives than they save, are paid 100x as much as Firefighters who save lives.
Your brain closely tracks what your relative status is in the hierarchy you live in, and assumes that if you are low status you are in danger (causing your cortisol levels to rise) and if you are high status you are safe (causing your cortisol levels to fall).
The assumption that life at the top of the hierarchy is safe and life at the bottom of the hierarchy is dangerous is an accurate assumption in most hierarchies most of the time (see the ‘Life and Death Stakes’ section above).