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; it can alternatively be considered a form of begging the question. 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. The fallacy derives from a cognitive bias called zero-sum thinking, in which humans tend to see a zero-sum game even when it is absent.