Universal karma sounds spiritual, but a lot of it may simply be cause and effect playing out over time. Bad habits, hatred, manipulation, short-term thinking and poor decisions can create the exact environment people later suffer from, while good habits, delayed gratification, cooperation and introspection can slowly push life in a better direction.
We are constantly constructing the world we will later have to live in. This applies to society, politics, relationships, money, health and everyday decisions, and the strange part is how often the consequences end up looking almost perfectly ironic.