zero sums
a friend of mine inspired this post. quite passionately. are taxes a zero sum game? more generally: is trading a zero sum game? well it is and it isn't. he's right and wrong. depends on what you're summing. when you trade say lumber for coal, nothing is created. there are no new trees or coal or anything. from the game's point of view there are exactly the same number of things before and after the trade. clearly a zero sum game. however, we make the lumber for coal trade because i perceive the value of lumber to be higher than you do and you perceive the value of coal to be higher than i do. after the trade we're both happier even though the absolute value of our resources hasn't changed. the technical term for that perceived value is utility. which is not conserved. ie total utility is higher after the trade than it was before. clearly trading is not a zero sum game. it all depends on what you're summing.