You do realise it’s not a fixed pie right?
So for example if you invest $100 in a farm and get a return of 10%, where does that come from? The nutrients in the soil, the effort expended by the workers, and the power of the sun to turn seeds into food. All value comes either from finite resources in the ground (nuclear, oil, ...), from solar power, or from human effort (work, innovations, etc.)
So can you trace back Nvidia's incredible 10000% return on investment to any of these sources? Which ones?
"Economic value" is great stuff and kind of all-encompassing.
But a lot of it is mainly moving money around after wealth has already been created, sometimes generations earlier.
To this day the lion's share of "creating wealth" is traceable to natural resources.
Value also comes from technology which you seem to suspiciously remove
> or from human effort (work, innovations, etc.)
The only thing "suspicious" here is your lack of reading comprehension.
> It's not a zero-sum game.
Well, it is. Thermodynamics. Earth is pretty much a closed system, except for the sun.
So for example if you invest $100 in a farm and get a return of 10%, where does that come from? The nutrients in the soil, the effort expended by the workers, and the power of the sun to turn seeds into food. All value comes either from finite resources in the ground (nuclear, oil, ...), from solar power, or from human effort (work, innovations, etc.)
Surprised basic stuff is now being questioned.
> Total prosperity of world has increased inflation adjusted over 100 years. Why?
Clearly, because people have worked to bring value to the world. But, most people actually doing the work see very little of the profits.
I often see this argument, "you have access to food, housing, healthcare etc., so that means that the system is working great". But you're missing the fact that me, my parents, and their parents, and their peers, have all worked to create all of that stuff. While simultaneously working to create the private jets and luxury yachts for the 1%.
In a more fair system we'd have twice as much prosperity, or work half as hard.