The Zero-Sum Society Distribution And The Possibilities For Change

Written during a period of acute economic stagnation in 1980, The Zero-Sum Society discusses the human implications of economic problem solving. Interpreting macroeconomics as a zero-sum game, Thurow proposes that the American economy will not solve its most trenchant problems-inflation, slow economic growth, the environment-until the political economy can support, in theory and in practice, the idea that certain members of society will have to bear the brunt of taxation and other government-sponsored economic actions. As relevant today as it was twenty years ago, The Zero-Sum Society offers a classic set of recommendations about the best way to balance government stewardship of the economy and the free-market aspirations of upwardly mobile Americans.

Lester Thurow has been professor of management and economics at MIT for more than thirty years. A Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, he taught at Harvard from 1966 to 1968 after a term as a staff economist on President Lyndon Johnson's Council of Economic Advisers. In addition to writing several books, three of them New York Times best sellers, he has served on the Editorial Board of the New York Times, as a contributing editor of Newsweek, and as a member of Time magazine's Board of Economists.