Not a Zero-Sum Game - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Those who are more successful in contributing to the well-being
of the rest, by means of competitive-free trade, will attract more
customers and consequently acquire more wealth, than those who
contribute less.
The competition to satisfy other people's needs and desires will
cause adjustments and changes in the way people do and make
things. When everyone enjoys the same right to compete, we have
to adapt and change in order to survive. This forces us to be
innovative and inventive. Assets, both tangible (machinery) and
intangible (knowledge) that were once highly prized become
obsolete. This process is what Joseph Schumpeter called
"creative destruction."l6
Obviously, adaptation will take place only when it produces a
benefit to society. Unfortunately, change also has costs, includ-
ing insecurity of investments and of jobs. Car makers killed the
buggy whip trade; the plastic industry reduced some natural yarns
to a boutique item; foreign outsourcing temporarily displaces
domestic workers, etc. Therefore, we should not be surprised that
domestic producers will lobby their government to establish import
duties to keep out competition.
To the degree that they succeed they will retard progress. Had we
achieved job security in the Stone Age, we would still live in caves.
16. Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (New York: Harper &
Row, 1950).