The World's Worst Disease Is Not AIDS, Avian Flu, Malaria... Its Zero-Sum Thinking

[NATO AIR]

EXCELLENT article that I really think would do a lot of good for anyone who reads it. This kind of thinking is very mistaken, and limits both your opportunities and your potential.

http://www.forbes.com/columnists/columnists/global/2006/0109/035A.html

World's Worst Disease
Rich Karlgaard, 01.09.06, 12:00 AM ET

It's not cancer or AIDS or avian flu; it's a monstrously flawed idea. The sickest thinking--and the source of most of human misery throughout the ages--is based on the following beliefs:

• The Earth is running out of resources;

• People consume more than they contribute;

• Wealth is a zero-sum distribution game.

History overwhelmingly refutes these ideas; otherwise, humankind would still be living in caves, sharpening spears for the hunt. Our lives would be brutal and short, lasting on average about 30 years. We'd enjoy no books, movies or iPods; we'd drive no cars to visit grandma over the holidays; we'd savor none of her gooseberry pie if the economic pie hadn't been growing all along.

Yet most politicians, economists and journalists act as if growth were a mirage and wealth a zero-sum game. What else accounts for last November's headlines yelling about GM's cut of some 30,000 jobs? Does the creation of 30,000 jobs get equal treatment? Why not? That's about how many jobs are born in the U.S. every six days.

Origins of the Virus
Why do so many opinion makers promote the zero-sum view? I think that politicians, even the best and brightest, become zero-sum thinkers because they occupy a zero-sum world. Only one person can be President of this country; only 50 can be governors; only 100 can be senators. The most creative entrepreneur in the world can't change these parameters. Politicians live in a world in which one person's gain is another's loss.

You'll also find most economists and professors in the zero-sum camp. Perhaps the competition for a limited number of tenured faculty spots warps their views. Princeton economist Paul Krugman typifies the breed. He apparently can't conceive of a world that is both growing and getting better. Consider the titles of some of Krugman's books.

• The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century (2003)

• The Return of Depression Economics (1999)

• The Age of Diminished Expectations (1990)

It's no surprise that the top business thinker of the last 50 years, the late Peter Drucker, operated outside of the university system. Drucker, who had escaped Germany in 1933, was no Pollyanna and no stranger to evil. But he saw that evil had its roots in a belief system of limits. The Nazis believed there was room on the planet for only one ideology and one race.

Journalists at mainstream media organizations wallow in a zero-sum world: There can be only one evening television anchor and one top editor at a newspaper. All others are beta dogs. Thus from the MSM we get a staple of alarming stories about job losses, trade and fiscal deficits, global warming, the price of oil rising to $100 a barrel and so on. Zero-sum nonsense, all of it. Why does the mainstream media love environmentalists? Both groups share a zero-sum view of the world.

Meanwhile, much of the better journalism and commentary has been migrating to blogs. No surprise here. Anybody who creates a blog is: (a) an entrepreneur and, thus, probably NOT a zero-sum thinker; and (b) a producer first and a consumer second. These two attributes alone guarantee that the blogger has a clearer view of how the world really works than does the zero-sum thinker toiling away at his mainstream media position.

Television, vile on so many levels, is a carrier of the zero-sum disease: There is only one Survivor, one American Idol and a single-digit number who escape Donald Trump's wagging finger.

If you doubt TV spreads the zero-sum virus, think again.

"The most popular [TV] male leads of today stand in stark contrast to the unambiguously moral protagonists of the past, good guys like Magnum, Matlock or Barnaby Jones," writes Warren St. John in a Dec. 11 New York Times story. "They are also not simply flawed in the classic sense: men who have the occasional affair or who tip the bottle a little too much. Instead they are unapologetic about killing, stealing, hoarding and beating their way to achieve personal goals …" (my emphasis).


Screwtape Letters for Business
Now that C.S. Lewis is back in vogue, one is reminded of a great Lewis book, The Screwtape Letters. In the book a senior devil, Screwtape, writes letters to his young nephew, Wormwood. Screwtape tells Wormwood how to tempt a client away from God.

Thought experiment: Let's suppose we have a Business Screwtape in our midst. How might this BS turn young souls away from enterprise and destroy hopes? Why not bombard clients with zero-sum thinking. Clients then could only:

• Get their news from the mainstream media. Thus, the war in Iraq might be seen as a fight for a fixed pot of oil, not a struggle for a better future.

• Get business ideas from newspapers and television. The emphasis would be on job losses and trade deficits … and on businessmen as greedy polluters.

• Get economic lessons from Ivy League economists. Clients would then learn about the horrible consequences of tax cuts.

• Get history from books that portray Americans as victimizers, not as inventors and entrepreneurs.

A majority of Americans think the economy is performing poorly, and 40% think a recession is under way. Is there a Business Screwtape in our midst? Could be. He's doing a hell of a job.

Read Rich Karlgaard's daily blog at http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules or visit his home page at www.karlgaard.com

 

[KarlMarx]

Zero sum thinking, an indispensible part of the liberal world view.

 

[NATO AIR]

that damn screwtape!

I love discovering (well in this case, i was tipped off by the most awesome Zenpundit (www.zenpundit.blogspot.com) writing and ideas like this. You rarely hear such original thinking in the media, and so you have to turn to the blogosphere and the remaining good magazines/journals to offer this type of thought.

It also makes one think, where in my life am I perhaps wrongly or foolishly applying zero sum thinking?

 

[KarlMarx]

It also makes one think, where in my life am I perhaps wrongly or foolishly applying zero sum thinking?

anyone that grew up during the 60s and 70s, as I did, has a lot of relearning to do. I've found that many things that I was taught in school was slanted and, in some cases, just plain old wrong.

so, you're not alone in this matter.

 

[William Joyce]

Good stuff.

I always like to note that while life is NOT, as liberals would have it, zero-sum, it's also not infinite-sum, as some conservos would have it.

 

[fuzzykitten99]

wow. i am at a loss for words. the article itself says it all...

 

[Bonnie]

Zero sum thinking, an indispensible part of the liberal world view.

Unquestionably!! It's the only way they can sell socialism.

 

[nosarcasm]

history has proven that there are limits to resources.

Usually food was the biggest problem. Water is
another one these days.


Otherwise I agree that Zero Sum thinking is contraproductive.

 

[waltky]

Malaria free in 4 years?...

Report: Six African Nations Could be Malaria-free by 2020
April 25, 2016 - Within the next four years, six nations in Africa – the region where malaria is most prominent – could be free of the disease, the World Health Organization said in a report published Monday to mark World Malaria Day.

The “Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030”, approved by the WHO last year, hoped to see an end to local transmission of malaria in at least 10 countries by 2020, but now the WHO estimates that 21 countries could achieve that goal, including six in Africa. “Since the year 2000, malaria mortality rates have declined by 60% globally. In the WHO African Region, malaria mortality rates fell by 66% among all age groups and by 71% among children under 5 years,” the WHO said in a statement accompanying the report. The six countries in Africa that could be rid of malaria by 2020 are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.

A doctor puts a heart monitor on the foot of a baby who is suffering from severe malaria in the Siaya hospital in western Kenya.​

WHO says malaria infection rates are falling thanks to the use of insecticide-treated bed-nets, regular bug spraying inside dwellings and rapid diagnostic testing, though these techniques are becoming less effective as time goes on. “The efficacy of the tools that secured the gains against malaria in the early years of this century is now threatened,” the WHO said. “Mosquito resistance to insecticides used in nets and indoor residual spraying is growing. So too is parasite resistance to a component of one of the most powerful antimalarial medicines.” While the outlook is promising, the group cautioned that nearly half of the world’s population – around 3.2 billion people – are still at risk of contracting malaria. Just last year, 214 million new cases of malaria were reported in 95 countries. More than 400,000 people died from the disease.

Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa, and Swaziland, in Africa​

The report says 9 out of ten deaths from malaria in 2015 came from sub-Saharan Africa. Moving forward, the WHO said new technologies will need to be developed to deal with the disease and the fight will require strong political commitment and financing from governments. “Reaching the goals of the ‘Global Technical Strategy’ will require a steep increase in global and domestic funding—from $2.5 billion today to an estimated $8.7 billion annually by 2030,” it said.

Report: Six African Nations Could be Malaria-free by 2020

 

[waltky]

Drug-resistant Malaria possibility in Africa...

Prospect of Drug-resistant Malaria Stirs Concern in Africa
July 14, 2016 — The number of new malaria cases in Africa fell 42 percent from 2000 to 2015, according to the World Health Organization. The drop was due in large part to insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor spraying and better access to effective treatments. But this progress could be derailed by a new wave of drug-resistant malaria that's currently affecting Asia.

Abdoulaye Djimde, head of the molecular epidemiology and drug resistance unit at the Malaria Research and Training Center in Bamako, Mali, said that "we should be concerned. ... Given the frequent interconnection between Asia and Africa — you have direct flights from almost everywhere to several parts of Africa — there is the risk for importing these resistant parasites. [It] is higher today.” In the 1970s, millions of Africans contracted malaria resistant to the front-line drug at the time, chloroquine. The results were catastrophic.

Women hold mosquito nets after receiving them at a distribution point in Sesheke, Zambia​

As of last year, five countries in Southeast Asia had reported cases of malaria resistant to the latest treatment, Artemisinin-based combination therapies, or ACT. “We need to be alert so that what happened with chloroquine resistance does not catch up with us," said Eunice Misiani of South Africa's National Malaria Control Program. "We have to make sure we conduct the efficacy testing standards on a regular basis — every two to three years.”

Fake drugs persist

Counterfeit drugs continue to be a big problem in Africa. The fake drugs, while cheaper, often have lower levels of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and using them can lead to drug resistance over time. Getting people to complete the treatment regime is also difficult. Many stop taking the pills after a day or two, once they start to feel better. Hans Rietveld, market access director at Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis' Malaria Initiative, said doctors in Africa often over-prescribe anti-malarial drugs. “First of all, ensure that there is adequate diagnosis before initiating treatment," he said. "And that is an issue in many countries where the practice ... of diagnosing prior to treatment isn’t yet embedded in normal medical practice.”

Some studies show that an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of cases treated as malaria in Africa aren’t actually malaria. Rietveld said expanding the use of rapid diagnostic tests in Africa could prevent overtreatment. The at-home tests can diagnose malaria with a finger prick. Novartis said there are now two new potential drugs in the works. Both treat malaria differently than ACTs. But getting these new drugs onto the market will take at least a few more years.

Prospect of Drug-resistant Malaria Stirs Concern in Africa

See also:

HIV Treatment Lagging in West Africa
July 11, 2016 — The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is relatively low in West Africa compared to the rest of Africa, but treatment rates there are equally low, say activists and health care workers. In Ivory Coast, about two-thirds of people living with HIV/AIDS are not on antiretroviral treatment.

Stéphane Alliali Dié Kouamé walks one neighborhood in Abidjan every day to visit people living with HIV/AIDS. "I encourage you to take your treatment so you can get better. Have they already done the last test for the child?" Kouamé asks a woman holding a baby. "No, but I have the first one," the woman replies. "And what did it say? Oh, negative," Kouamé remarks. Treatment with antiretroviral drugs can reduce mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy and birth. Kouamé works for the local NGO Lumière Action, which runs a treatment center nearby. He says people fall out of treatment for many reasons.

Some become discouraged. Some become misguided by charlatans touting cures. Others don't have enough money to pay for transport to the clinic. And then, there is the stigma. "Just last week, a couple came to the clinic and they recognized one of the nurses, so they didn't want to come back to get their treatment. They asked me to bring it to them," Kouamé said. "They stigmatize themselves sometimes." The clinic also offers free HIV tests. Ivory Coast made antiretroviral medications free in 2008.Since then, the percentage of people on ARV's has doubled to about 30 percent, but aid groups say that is still too low.

Low ARV Stocks

Clinics frequently run out of stock. "For first line treatment, there is no problem. But for the second line, there are always stocks outs. We are people living with HIV/AIDS. We are told we have a lifelong treatment to follow. We cannot understand that today there are stock outs," says Leontine Sidye of RIP PLUS, a coalition of 68 local NGO's working on HIV/AIDS. Since last year, an alert system has been implemented. When a clinic runs out of stock, it contacts RIP PLUS. The group gets in touch with the Ivorian authorities to try to get the medicine. Treatment with antiretroviral drugs can slow the virus' spread in the body and delay the onset of AIDS.

Antiretroviral drugs or ARV's, in Ivory Coast are financed by initiatives like The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR (The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), along with the government, but the demand remains high and so is the cost. "We could better the situation by producing the ARV's locally. Not necessarily within the country, but within the sub-region. That could lower the costs," says Tamsir Sall, a UNAIDS representative in Ivory Coast. About 80 percent of ARV's used in Africa are imported from abroad and many countries are pushing to produce locally. South Africa recently announced the creation of a state-owned company to manufacture ARV's there.

Activists: HIV Treatment Lagging in West Africa