Fiat has trained its subjects' brains to think that wishing leads to results. Even Hollywood reinforces it. Have you noticed the trope? That only when a superhero loses control and acts with full _emotional_ intensity, do the magic colored lights start to spark from their hands. You can see political activists trying to emulate this power, to poor effect.
Fiat is a modernist simulation of a god. It surreptitiously steals energy from one sector of the economy, and gives to the true followers who make the most convincing supplications.