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Welcome to the Zero Sum Era. Now How Do We Get Out?

Zero-sum thinking has spread like a mind virus, from geopolitics to
pop culture.

Credit...Photo illustration by Pablo Delcan

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Damien Cave

By Damien Cave

Damien covers global affairs. He is based in Vietnam.

  * Published March 1, 2025Updated March 2, 2025

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My grandfather's idea of an Easter egg hunt involved hiding money in
colorful plastic eggs sprinkled around his house on Long Island. Most
held coins, but there was always one with a crisp, new $100 bill.

My cousin, Billy-O, and I were the only players. We were usually
playful partners in mayhem but as competitors, we took on every hunt
with gusto, flipping over cushions, throwing open cabinets, knocking
each other aside until, without fail, Billy-O found the $100.

The first time he won, I fought back tears. But after a few years of
losses, I exploded.

"It's just not fair," I yelled.

"Life's unfair," my grandfather told us. "You win or you lose."

This is what's called zero-sum thinking -- the belief that life is a
battle over finite rewards where gains for one mean losses for
another. And these days, that notion seems to be everywhere. It's how
we view college admissions, as a cutthroat contest for groups defined
by race or privilege. It's there in our love for "Squid Game." It's
Silicon Valley's winner-take-all ethos, and it's at the core of many
popular opinions: that immigrants steal jobs from Americans; that the
wealthy get rich at others' expense; that men lose power and status
when women gain.

But nowhere is the rise of our zero-sum era more pronounced than on
the world stage, where President Trump has been demolishing decades
of collaborative foreign policy with threats of protectionist tariffs
and demands for Greenland, Gaza, the Panama Canal and mineral rights
in Ukraine. Since taking office, he has often channeled the age he
most admires -- the imperial 19th century.

And in his own past, zero-sum thinking was deeply ingrained. His
biographers tell us he learned from his father that you were either a
winner or loser in life, and that there was nothing worse than being
a sucker. In Trumpworld, it's kill or be killed; he who is not a
hammer must be an anvil.

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