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November 29, 2005
The World’s Worst Disease: Small Minded Thinking
Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard, in his terrific blog, says the world’s worst disease is small minded, zero sum thinking which results in the following beliefs:
1. The earth is running out of resources
2. People consume more than they contribute
3. Wealth is a zero sum distribution game
History overwhelmingly refutes these ideas, or else humankind would still be living in caves, sharpening its spears for the hunt. Our lives would be brutal and short, lasting on average about 30 years. We’d enjoy no books, movies or iPods; we’d drive no cars to visit grandma on Thanksgiving; we’d enjoy no pumpkin pie if the economic pie had not been growing all along.
Yet most politicians, economists and journalists act is if growth is a mirage and wealth is zero sum. What else accounts for today’s headlines screaming GM’s cut of 30,000 jobs? Does the creation of 30,000 jobs get equal treatment? Why not? That’s about how many jobs are born every week in the United States.
What causes some to take the zero-sum view?
Politicians, even the best and brightest, I think, become zero-sum thinkers over time because they occupy a zero-sum world. Only one person can be U.S. president. Only 50 can be governors. Only 100 can be Senators. The most creative entrepreneur in the world can’t change these facts. Politicians live in a world where one person’s gain is another’s loss.
Head of nail, meet Rich Karlgaard’s hammer.
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