ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
People have this erroneous assumption that the world economy is a zero sum game. That if China and India become more wealthy, than we must become less wealthy in absolute terms. It's not true.
Good point, but maybe 'not true' is overstating it. I think it is just one possible outcome. A super-simplistic example, numbers picked just to illustrate the point:
Lets assign an index of "100" for the standard of living of the median US citizen, and "10" as the standard of living of the median China citizen. Sum is "110" units.
Ten years later, maybe China has increased its index to "30", but due to the 'flat world' effect, the US index has fallen to "90". Sum is "120", it represents improvement overall from "110", so it is not a zero-sum game, but the US still had a decrease in its index in this hypothetical illustration.
Not a prediction, just an observation. - ERD50