The World's Worst Disease

Richard Karlgaard makes a nice observation and is mostly right. Excerpt:

It is not AIDS or Avian Flu.

It is a monstrously flawed idea.

The sickest thinking and the source of human misery throughout the ages is based on a belief that:

1. The earth is running out of resources
2. People consume more than they contribute
3. Wealth is a zero sum distribution game

He argues that the headlines surrounding GM's recent announcement to cut 30k jobs is evidence of such thinking and notes that job creation is not nearly as newsworthy, but should be.

Does the creation of 30,000 jobs get equal treatment? Why not? That’s about how many jobs are born every week in the United States.

Where he gets it wrong is when he ties Economists to such thinking.

Economists and professors compete for a limited number of tenured university spots. This warps their view toward zero-sum thinking.

Huh? Much of the underlying theory and applied research supporting Karlgaard are published by Economists. This concept underlies the near universal support by Economists for free trade. And so on. Link