Tag: zero sum

On October 15, 2012 I went to Championing Equality — Progress or Peril?, hosted by the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic and the Law Society of Upper Canada. It was held at Osgoode Hall — not the law school but rather the beautiful building at Queen Street West and Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.

Much of the discussion was as to legal and political steps that have been taken, or should be taken, to help immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities escape poverty. The emphasis was on a reasonable equality of opportunity, not an artificial equality of outcome.

The styles have changed but immigrants
are still coming to North America

The reaction of some people might be, why should taxpayers’ money be used to help immigrants and minorities compete with us? This reminds me of two classic contradictory complaints about immigrants that if combined could read: those leeches won’t work and they’re taking all our jobs.

The discomfort — to the extent it is not simple prejudice — is based on a fallacy sometimes called the Lump of Wealth. That is the idea that there is just so much wealth to go around so if someone gets more then someone else must get less. It is a zero sum concept of economics. As the famous economist Thomas Sowell says, many economic errors are based on zero sum thinking.

What is overlooked is that productive people contribute to our prosperity generally. They produce valuable goods and services and are also themselves buyers — that is, customers for others’ businesses.

As long as immigrants and minorities rise from poverty by competing and producing rather than by a racial or ethnic spoils system, their rise helps not just them but also those of us who are already free of poverty.