Zero-sum thinking
Also called: Lump of labour fallacy
Assuming that one person's gain must be another's loss, as if the total were fixed.
How to spot it
Is the economy, the number of jobs or the amount of wealth treated like a fixed cake?
Example
“Every job a machine does is a job a person loses for good.”
How to answer it
Ask whether the total can grow, and what the freed resources do next.
Related
- Broken window fallacy: Counting what is spent and gained, and ignoring what that money would otherwise have done.
- Single cause: Blaming one factor for something that has several causes.