False zero-sum game

A false zero-sum game, or zero-sum fallacy, is the logical fallacy of asserting, typically without analysis, that a particular situation is a zero-sum game, when in fact it is not. For example, liberals assert that the economy is a zero-sum game in order to justify income redistribution. The false zero-sum game is a type of false dilemma. In economics, a particular form of the false zero-sum game is called the lump-of-labor fallacy, which assumes that since there is (supposedly) a fixed amount of work to be done in the world, changing the number of workers will cause an inverse change in the amount of work per worker, or vice versa.