The Zero-Sum Trap: Why Leaders like Trump and the Public Misunderstand Growth

What do Donald Trump and Germany’s political Left have in common? They both fall for the ‘zero-sum fallacy’—the belief that one person’s gain is automatically another’s loss. This article explores why this ancient mental model is making a massive comeback in modern politics, why it fuels social envy in countries like Germany and France, and why the US remains a crucial outlier for investors and innovators.

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