Zero-Sum
Economics
Capitalism
and the Wasted Pie Theory
Deborah
Venable
March
2002
(Previously
published elsewhere)
With government
claiming ever so much more of the socialists’ finite economic pie, the bakers,
(that’s us folks), have a tendency to burn as much of said pie as possible
before serving it up to the greedy entities that won’t appreciate it
anyway. We just think the standards have been lowered in such things as
education and morality – the standards of capitalism are teetering on absolute
bankruptcy. The fact that more and more
wealth is being held in the form of representative value and controlled by way
of misrepresenting real value contributes to an economic boondoggle that causes
market collapses and fluctuating economic wellness. It also leaves us wide open for the constant stream of socialist
and communist critics of our proven capitalist system. All of this is bad enough in peacetime, but
as the war expands and commands more and more resources, this “dumbed-down”
system of capitalism could begin to overcome us.
Unless you have
a natural leaning toward bean counting,
all this probably sounds like so much blather – just one more tired theory on
economic security. As a veteran of
struggling with balance sheets and budgets, both business and personal, as well
as the courses of study in accounting for business prosperity, I know that
practically anything is a more interesting read than a paper on economic
theory. You can go into the study of
economics loving math and come out wanting to throw up when you encounter
numbers! For this reason, far too many
people will go to any lengths not to have to deal with actual accounting of
their wealth and resources. Add to that
an absolutely impossible tax code, and folks run begging for “professional”
help. Accounting firms are at the top
of the list of “necessary” business services that do not produce any of the
wealth they account for. A close second
would be the insurance industry.
Meanwhile, trying to find the responsible decision maker in business may
turn out to be like hunting for a needle in a haystack. I’m all for delegating authority in
business, folks, but responsibility IS a zero-sum game. There is only so much of that to go around!
Rush Limbaugh
is known to lecture on the fallacy of the liberal/socialist theory of zero-sum
economics, and I whole-heartedly agree with what he says. The success of one does not have to be
bought at the expense of another. The
redistribution of wealth via an overbearing system outside of free market capitalism
will never produce a utopia that proponents hope for. At best, this only widens the gap between the original haves and
the have nots, with the latter group expanding while the elite have more by
virtue of “managing” the whole thing.
In order to control the growing dissidence, even the best socialist or
communist government will end up becoming the worst tyranny with freedom tossed
out early on, and never recaptured without violent revolution. It is truly sad that these crystal clear
facts cannot be taught and accepted by all human societies. In the early days of America, our most
valuable export was that of capitalism itself.
That product alone was responsible for securing America’s freedoms and
her international respect. It has
introduced the world to a hope for mankind that had not previously been viewed
as possible. This would not have
happened if our Founders believed in zero-sum economics.
The economic
system we have today is but a shadow of its former self. It has continued to deteriorate in direct
relationship to our diminishing freedoms.
As those who thought they knew better continued to insist on changing
the capitalism of yesterday to an enforced rush to spend the profits on bad
choices, we are left with an evil collection of failure ridden economic
policies. We don’t make enough of our
own decisions in freedom any more and we pass responsibility for what few we do
make on to fabricated entities of fate.
With that said, I am ready to suggest the employment of the zero-sum
theory in one capacity only – responsibility.
It IS very finite. When one
takes on responsibility, someone else gives it up. It is removed from the pie – no questions asked. The pie is topped with a corresponding
amount of that luscious crowd pleaser – freedom. Now, when THAT pie is finally served up, capitalism will return
to what it truly should be – the hope of a prosperous humanity.
Sounds almost
too easy, doesn’t it? Individual
responsibility goes hand-in-hand with individual freedom. We used to know that. Capitalism supplies the vehicle to achieve
freedom while only exacting the price of responsibility. Perhaps bean counting isn’t so dull after
all. Perhaps we can begin to weed
through necessities and toss out some extravagance until we can better afford
to lavish ourselves with freedom’s rewards once again. If we get our own lives and businesses in
order, the inefficiencies that exist in government will become glaringly clear. The monstrosity of power that we’ve handed
an ill-defined system of tyrannical rulers because we couldn’t be bothered to
keep up with our own responsibilities is certainly not going to serve us well
as it sits bloated from over-indulgence on our pie. We’d better raise the standards back up and bake another one –
without burning it this time. Then we
can all have a helping and act accordingly.