Growth

 

I’m A Loser

What have I done to deserve such a fate?
I realize I have left it too late
And so it's true pride comes before a fall
I'm telling you so that you won't lose all

I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone was a winner.

In a zero-sum game there are always winners and losers. A winner has more than 50% of the sum and a loser has less than 50% of the sum. In a game that is more than a zero-sum game, a game which allows growth, that does NOT have to be the case. The growth can be shared by both players of the game. In that case, they can both be winners. The previous winner can have all of his previous share and a percentage of the growth. Because that player has more than what he had previously, he is a winner. The previous loser can have all of his previous share plus the remaining share of the growth. In that case the second player is better off than he was before and is no longer a loser and is also a winner. Only if the previous winner takes more than his share of the growth plus his share of the previous sum will there be a winner and loser. If each player retains his previous share and gets a share of the growth then both players have more than their previous amount and they are both winners.

That is a reason for being against any zero-sum game. In a game where the previous share is retained and the growth is shared among the players, there are only winners with respect to the previous value. It is only if the growth is also considered to be a zero-sum game are there winners and losers. If the previous share is applied to growth then everyone is a winner.

The problem is if the game repeats and on each successive round the share of the growth is the share from the previous round, not from the initial round. Eventually all of the new growth  will belong to the “winner” and none of the growth will belong to the second player and thus that player will be a loser. But it is by definition NOT a zero-sum game because there was growth. The only way to resolve this contradiction is to assume that from the start it is NOT a zero-sum game.