Losing the zero sum game – They’re mooching off your slice of the pie

[Jaundice James]

One of the biggest lies in economics and politics is a phrase that’s often spewed by conservatives and free-market types whenever they argue against what they perceive to be class warfare or any interference in what they view as mere “success”. That phrase is: “It’s not a zero sum game”...

But if you’ve ever worked at a big company and heard the words “it’s not in the budget” (perhaps referring to giving raises above a paltry annual 3% cost of living increase) you know it IS a zero sum game.

The truth is, America’s made up of many, many zero sum games. They occur in the budgets of companies all across America, and we’re losing them every time we collect a paycheck or purchase goods and services.


http://corporatecorruptionchronicle.com/2010/08/29/losing-the-zero-sum-game-%E2%80%93-they%E2%80%99re-mooching-off-your-slice-of-the-pie/

[MineralMan]

1. Here's a question: Can you propose an workable alternative to

corporations that could handle the manufacturing, supplying, and distribution of goods in the US? What mechanism do you have in mind to replace our current system, which is made up of businesses, large, medium-sized, and small, which operate on the profit motive? It's one thing to criticize a system. It's quite another to propose a viable alternative. I keep waiting for someone to specify the alternative. So far, I haven't heard one.

Based on your profile and website, I'm assuming that you are the Jim Cunningham who wrote this. So, could you turn your not inconsiderable skills to laying out a replacement system for the current one or a plan to rebuild the current system? Criticism without a plan just doesn't do much for me.

[av8rdave]

4. I'm not sure the OP was criticizing the idea of a corporation...

Just the fact that we need to recognize that, contrary to what the right often blathers, it IS usually a zero sum game. Good or bad, we need to recognize it for what it is.

Just my view of it.

[MineralMan]

5. I think I'll wait for the OP to answer. He'd be the only one who

could answer my question. In the meantime, I'm reading some of his other writings on the two websites, the one linked to in the OP and the one in his profile. There are lots of articles in both.

[Jaundice James]

10. My hope is that...

people will stop accepting false premises.

I'm not anti-corporate; just anti-greed. These corporations need to realize that they can't keep milking money out of the general public by squeezing us ever tighter. If people aren't making any money to spend, there's nobody to buy their products and services.

My hope is that companies will begin to take a different track and begin treating their existing people better, knowing that it contributes to the economy.

I don't think there's a way to force it - corporations get very contrary when forced to do anything and often do the opposite just for spite (Witness credit cards and health insurers raising rates.) but having a few figure it out on their own and have others follow...

Perhaps it'll happen in one of these towns where one big corporation employs a considerable portion of the town. If they suddenly decided to give raises instead of buying the next corporate jet, the region might see an economic boost.

I don't know... just thinking out loud.

Oh, this is good too:

http://robertreich.org/post/1020104902/the-two-stories-of-this-terrible-economy-yet-obama-and

[MineralMan]

11. OK, thanks for the clarification.

There are corporations of all sizes, from single-person businesses to giant multi-national firms. I just can't condemn all of them in a single stroke. There are many corporations, even some large ones, who are very good corporate citizens. There are also some very bad ones.

I think a more focused approach is called for, generally.

[av8rdave]

12. I was hoping that was the gist of your OP

Thanks.

Corporations in and of themselves aren't a bad thing (I have one, for God's sake). They provide jobs, economic activity, products and services, and often charity. Done responsibly, these are all good.

Corporations that sacrifice employee well being, product/service safety, environment, or social responsibility solely for the sake of profits and shareholders are a bad thing.

Corporations that mindlessly support politicians and causes harmful to the things above are a bad thing as well.

Just my $.02

[Jaundice James]

13. I cover that...

Yeah, in my "About" page I talk about the responsible ones:

http://corporatecorruptionchronicle.com/abouttheccc/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. yes.

:kick:

[ShockediSay]

3. It is class warfare, and THEY are winning it ever since

top of the pyramid types are stuffing their pockets and all the rest of us are having a tougher and tougher time just getting by.

And when they spew off about OUR class warfare, that is just THEIR fat cat funded propaganda machine beating us with THEIR controlled MSM.

[snot]

6. It's a zero-sum game IF the takers outweigh the producers --

I.e., so long as there are more financiers et al. merely skimming profits off the labor of fewer people actually producing anything.

If, on the other hand, more people are engaged in genuinely creative, productive effort, the whole pie can grow.

(It's not actually the no. of people doing this or that, of course, but the total quantity of production vs. skimming/looting).

[starroute]

7. You can be getting screwed even if the pie is growing

Suppose there's a jump in productivity out of which the managers and shareholders get 90% of the benefits while the employees get 10%.

In that case, you could claim the pie was growing and everyone was benefiting.

But if the workers get only a small fraction of that benefit, then you have the situation we've been in for the past 30 years -- where wages stay almost flat after inflation, while the share of wealth going into the pockets of the wealthy balloons.

[snot]

9. Agreed; I'm just talking about net total growth or not, which is what "zero-sum game" refers to.

[midnight]

14. The greedy ones ruin it for everyone.

[hughee99]

8. How come GDP goes up every year?

Which country or countries' GDP drops when ours goes up? If we add a million jobs in the US, where will a million jobs be lost? Of course ANY budget is a zero sum game. The whole concept of a budget is that you start with some amount and figure out how to allocate it. A economy isn't a budget, though.

[raccoon]

15. The GDP goes up as a result of "bad" things as well as "good" things.

"The GDP is simply a gross measure of market activity, of money changing hands. It makes no distinction whatsoever between the desirable and the undesirable, or costs and gain. On top of that, it looks only at the portion of reality that economists choose to acknowledge--the part involved in monetary transactions. The crucial economic functions performed in the household and volunteer sectors go entirely unreckoned. As a result the GDP not only masks the breakdown of the social structure and the natural habitat upon which the economy--and life itself--ultimately depend; worse, it actually portrays such breakdown as economic gain."

“If the GDP is Up, Why is America Down?” (Published in 1995, this is a kick-butt article.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/ecbig/gdp.htm

[hughee99]

16. Isn't the GDP rising a sign that it's NOT a zero sum game?

Certainly you can make the argument about the distribution of wealth, but "the pie" gets bigger each year.