Not a Zero Sum Game

Economics is not a zero sum game. If it was the earth would have run out of food and collapsed centuries ago. Almost every year GDP grows. Where does that growth come from? Do we create something out of nothing? No, we create it with our work and our innovation.




Scarcity is the greatest myth in economics. It is the first principle that all economic theories are based on. This is not some pie in the sky spiritualist abundance idea. There really can be enough for everyone, if we focus on creating more of what we need.




Eventually creating more out of less will become more and more difficult, so we need to either decide that we can and will innovate as fast as we can, or we need to slow population growth. But in the meantime if we realize that we can make more, and that we do it all the time, it changes the argument.