Zero Sum Economics
January 21, 2007 4:33 pm economics, insightI don’t have time to write my own thoughts on this subject right now, but I know I’ll speak on it eventually. In the meantime, I’ll post it now… mostly for my own reference, possibly to spark insight and discussion.
Communism, and to a lesser extent socialism, can be seen as starting with the assumption the economy is a zero-sum game, and they end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy on that front as in their zeal to make sure capital/wealth is evenly distributed, they destroy the mechanisms of capital/wealth creation. Actually, they end up with a negative-sum game. I’m not defending any particular instantiation of capitalism at this time, I’m just saying you damn well need to understand why it does what it does if you want to understand how economies work.
From Jerf’s post to Study Claims Offshoring Doesn’t Cost US Jobs on Slashdot.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:42 pm
What’s with the politicoeconomic rants of late?
January 21st, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Just writing down what I want to talk about. I haven’t seen any good tech topics lately.
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:16 am
Ignore the plebian. Keep posting politics!
I’m not the most new-agey guy you’ll ever find but my mother is and she believes in the principal of “abundance.” That is: there’s enough for everyone and scarcity is like, a state of mind or something.
While I say “tell that to the last male Dodo trying to get some trim,” I think there’s more to it than wishful thinking. Certainly doing the ‘cost-calculus’ is more difficult than people think (or ‘would like to think’).
-Marco
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:10 am
That deserves a top-level post: keep watching.