---- Original Message ----- I'm mostly not very confident of my grasp of left criticism of the economy and yet am a long time subscriber here, happily gleaning what I can glean.
I'm in a conversation right now where I'm being hit with "wealth is not a zero sum game." Because I had a superficial understanding of it at first I did a teeny bit of googling and found it is a major talking point with apologists all over.
My point in the conversation is basically that our current system is incredibly exploitative both of natural resources and labor. They repeat the wealth is not a zero sum game. Is this just wrong, a red herring?? any pointers.
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Despite a decade of negative real returns on equities, several equity bear markets and the collapse of housing bubbles, the 2013 Credit Suisse Wealth Report finds that global wealth has more than doubled since 2000, reaching a new all-time high of 241 trillion US dollars. Strong economic growth and rising population levels in emerging nations are important drivers of this trend. Average wealth per adult has also hit a new peak of 51,600 US dollars, but inequality remains high. full: https://www.credit-suisse.com/au/en/news-and-expertise/research/credit-suisse-research-institute/news-and-videos.article.html/article/pwp/news-and-expertise/2013/10/en/global-wealth-reaches-new-all-time-high.html
Wealth is growing globally. It's being produced by the working class.
However, 80% of it is being appropriated by the top 10% of the population. Details at the link. And the reason is that that's how the wage system works. Check out 'Value, Price and Profit' at the Wobbly times blogspot below:
Pointedly, Mike B) -- Wobbly times http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com.au/