Скачать или смотреть The Zero-Sum Game: The Shrinking American Middle

🤔 The Zero-Sum Game: The Shrinking American Middle examines how the U.S. economy has increasingly shifted from shared growth to competitive redistribution. While productivity and asset values rise, the benefits flow upward, leaving the middle class squeezed by stagnant wages, rising living costs, and declining job security. Housing, healthcare, and education absorb a growing share of income, while debt fills the gap left by slow earnings growth. This dynamic turns economic progress into a zero-sum outcome, where gains at the top coincide with losses in middle-class stability. The analysis explores the structural forces—financialization, labor market shifts, and policy choices—that are hollowing out the economic center of American society.


✔ From Shared Growth to Redistribution
Economic expansion increasingly benefits asset owners, while the middle class captures a shrinking share of national income.

✔ Stagnant Wages and Rising Costs
Slow wage growth collides with higher housing, healthcare, and education expenses, steadily eroding purchasing power.

✔ Debt Replacing Income
Household debt fills the gap between earnings and living costs, masking deeper structural weakness.

✔ Labor Market Pressures
Automation, outsourcing, and job insecurity weaken traditional middle-class career paths.

✔ Policy and Structural Drivers
Financialization and policy choices reinforce a zero-sum dynamic, shrinking the economic center of American society.

Timeline ⏰

0:00 - Introduce
00:22 - America’s Shift from Shared Growth to Zero-Sum Economy
01:59 - The Great Squeeze of America’s Middle Class
03:29 - Financialization Creating a Zero-Sum Debt Trap
05:02 - Zero-Sum Endgames: Global Lessons in Asset Extraction
06:39 - Zero-Sum America: Loss of Agency and Hollow Middle
08:06 - Policy Guardrails Protect Elites in Zero-Sum Economy
09:28 - Personal Survival Strategies for a Rigged Zero-Sum Economy
11:09 - Choosing a Positive-Sum Future Beyond Zero-Sum Economics
12:45 - Macro-Fractures of Society: Privatization, Hollow Middle, Collective Wealth
14:18 - Ending Zero-Sum Era: Rebuilding Middle-Class Resilience and Prosperity
15:45 - Outro

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