When you work, you create.
When you win, you just take from the loser.
What does this mean, other than just a strange Internet signature?
Relations with other people can be divided into zero sum interactions and
non-zero sum interactions. A poker game is a zero sum interaction.
If you win at poker, your winnings equal some one else’s losses.
No wealth is created, it is just transferred. Many people view most
of life as zero-sum interactions.
A non-zero sum interaction is when wealth is created. When you
work you trade your labor for money. You value the money more than
your labor. Your employer values your labor more than his money.
So both parties gain and thus wealth is created. This cooperation to
create wealth is the essence of the free market.
A wonderful essay as to how the free market allows even people who
don’t know each other to cooperate to create wealth is “ I, Pencil .”
If you do not think this is a wonderful process, go home and stay there
until you can make a computer out of stuff you can dig out of the ground.
Many people think that the basis of the free market is competition,
and this makes it cold and cruel. Yes, competition is part of the
free market. But cooperation is even more important. Only with
cooperation can wealth be created.
Paul Studier
http://paulstudier.com/
