Do zero-sum beliefs on the left and right share one worldview?
Core argument: Per capita economic growth across the West has averaged less than 1% a year since the financial crisis, down from more than double that in the prior three decades and triple that before.
My analysis of polling by More in Common finds that in the US, UK, France and Germany zero-sum beliefs on the left (e.g. people only get rich by making others poor) and the right (e.g. immigrants succeed at the expense of the native-born) are related expressions of the same underlying worldview. Namely that there is only so much to go around and we must therefore use restrictions, exactions and preferential treatment to redress the balance between winners and losers. The emergence of these beliefs in different countries and political systems points to their being grounded in a shared reality. When economic growth is weak, upward mobility becomes limited, meaning gains really are more likely to come at another’s expense. This describes the past two decades almost perfectly. Per capita economic growth across the west has averaged less than 1% a year since the financial crisis, down from more than double that in the previous three decades and triple before that. The conveyor belt of generation-on-generation economic progress has slowed to a crawl and everyone is looking accusingly at the person a few steps ahead or the one joining the line half way along. More than half of young voters now back zero-sum parties of the right or left in the US, UK, France and Germany.
