Zero-sum means more for me means less for you. But if I make more money it doesn’t mean there is less for anyone else, or that I have taken any money from anyone else, leaving them poorer.
If you create something that produces value for others, you haven’t made anyone’s life worse.
You may make a lot of money, but you have not taken anything from anyone.
In fact, you have made lives better with your product or service – otherwise, they would not have bought it from you.
Let’s look at the reverse – if I create poverty in my life and for my family, does that make everyone else in society better?
Creating wealth only makes everyone better off.
We need a 21st Century Ayn Rand. Not only is wealth not a zero-sum game, the standard of living that the lowest in America enjoy (very rich compared to 100 or 200 years ago) REQUIRES the harder work of the very wealthy. It’s unfashionable right now to call very clever mental work harder, but it certainly is. Until we mount an idealogical defense for very creative work and the workers’ right to its rewards, the lifestyle of all Americans is at risk.
This is an important fact to point out—our monkey brains evolved in a world where resources were often scarce, so a rival group of nearby people prospering often DID mean they were taking from me any my group. As you pointed out, in the modern world , that is no longer the case—but the thought and logic patterns that our brains evolved to make sense of and survive in the world persist.
Agree. Not only does the product or service make people’s lives better, the fact that people are making a living building a product or providing a service is a key piece too. Also, those people pay taxes being gainfully employed and help provide services to their local communities via the tax base.