Buy used: $6.05

$8.83 delivery November 1 - 22. Details

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by ThriftBooks-Phoenix

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Add to List

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the Author

Lester C. Thurow

Zero-sum Society Hardcover – January 1, 1980

by Lester C. Thurow (Author)

4.2 14 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$6.05

$23.45

$4.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

$17.53

$1.71

Kindle
$9.99 Read with our Free App
Hardcover
$6.05

44 Used from $4.00 2 New from $23.45 5 Collectible from $17.93
Paperback
$17.53

22 Used from $1.71 12 New from $17.53

A leading economist maintains that America's economic problems cannot be solved without worsening conditions for many people although society as a whole might gain in the process

Print length

230 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

January 1, 1980
ISBN-10

0465093841
ISBN-13

978-0465093847
See all details

Lester C Thurow
20
Hardcover
$13.63
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Prof. Lester C. Thurow
11
Paperback
30 offers from $1.62
Lester C Thurow
14
Paperback
$17.53
$9.80 shipping
Lester C Thurow
16
Hardcover
57 offers from $1.50
Lester C. Thurow
36
Hardcover
$14.95
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Oct 24
$12.04 shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

14 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

J. Davis

Even many years later still well worth reading

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2013

The ZSS was one of the most valuable and insightful economic books ever written, and it is well worth reading even today. Thurow, a brilliant man and an excellent writer, combines (as I see it) philosophy and economics brilliantly in this classic. The most important part of the book--not to diminish many other important features--was his lucid explanation of why political activity is usually zero-sum (people's gain from a government action is accompanied by losses for many others).

Although written in 1980, this concept remains just as valid today. Just take the current debate over the health insurance law. Many people (correctly)complain that it will hurt them, while many others (also correctly) praise it for helping them. If this concept was understood by the masses, it would lead to a more constructive dialogue today. Regrettably, people want laws passed that help them without hurting anyone else, and that simply isn't possible.

Thurow is known as a liberal, but I would argue he's really a very reasonable moderate or centrist. He makes compelling arguments against the corporate income tax and antitrust laws that liberals should read carefully. He also makes strong arguments for government involvement in the economy that conservatives should read carefully. Anyone who wants a deep understanding of economics and politics should read this classic. My only complaint with him is that he hasn't published an update of ZSS. It would be worthwhile to the American public to discuss some more recent economic events within the book's context.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

M.N.JAM

Classic and prescient preview of our age

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2013

Thurow's Zero Sum Society is a classic, one of the few books written about the contemporary US over the past thirty years or so that was and is worth reading. Two others are Olsen's Rise and Decline of Nations and Lasch's Culture of Narcissism. The three, which can and should be read together, are prophetic of what has happened since they were published (1980-82). If the Thurow's views seem commonplace, it has because they have penetrated the thinking of many. Carping about whether Thurow is properly using game theoretic terminology is irrelevant to the core thesis of the book, which is that the US is simply not adapting to the global order it did so much to promote in the aftermath of WWII.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

John C Frana

Repetitive but contains some good ideas

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2015

One of the author's most interesting arguments I haven't really read elsewhere is to get rid of the corporate tax and instead tax the earnings of that corporation that go to each individual investor as normal income.
He spends a lot of time talking about inflation as though it has to be avoided or minimized but never really explains why this is so important. As long as incomes and long term investments go up at a similar rate, which he argues they have, it shouldn't make much difference.
The main point of the book, that every exchange or transfer is zero sum, goes directly against classic capitalist economic theory, and he never really explains that either. He does repeatedly make the point that every government policy benefits some group of people and harms others. This causes the classic problem that the smaller group with the most to gain or lose lobbies the government more than the larger group with less (individually) at stake.
He makes a lot of good examples of why markets don't perform as described in econ 101. There is a lot of overhead in the increasingly larger companies in the US. They can't send people home on a slow week, or close the factory early if it's slow that day, or change employees' pay on a regular basis. A power plant costs about the same to run if it's sitting idle or running at full load. One of the interesting points he makes is that investment in some industries has a much higher return on investment, or increase in productivity, than others. Unfortunately, in his view, companies tend to invest in themselves rather than in another industry with a better ROI that could improve the productivity of the overall economy. Then in other parts of the book he makes big assumptions about the economy acting like the world is a simple capitalist market.
He points out that a big part of the increased productivity in the US was the migration of the labor force from agriculture to more productive industries, such as manufacturing. Conversely the recent movement to a service economy is reducing productivity.
His reasoning on environmental regulations completely ignores the quantifiable benefits some of these regulations produce. He seems to think these regulations are in place so some dirty tree hugging hippies can have spotted owls in their backyards, and there is some truth to that. Perhaps not when this book was published, but certainly by now, studies have been done that show that reducing pollution by a certain amount reduces health care costs by a different amount. This is a good example of a non zero sum tradeoff where a regulation could save a lot more money to society than it costs to the polluter. The opposite is true of other regulations.
He points out that the anti trust settlements of the time had produced little benefit to the consumer and perhaps even larger conglomerates would be good so they can afford R&D, etc. This certainly goes against any free market thinking any capitalist has, and he never explores the option of breaking up these monopolies further rather than into two or three big companies that don't compete with each other. He does wisely point out that our current regulations have the effect of a centrally planned command economy but without the central planning.
If you thought this review was too long, this book is definitely not for you. If you want more detail, read it.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jane Pek

Eminently Readable, Hardly Revolutionary

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2000

This was one of the most readable non-fiction books I've ever come across. It's written in clear effective English and makes its point (mainly through repetition) very well.
Thurow has one basic idea - that the American economy was paralysed in the 1970s because of the variety of groups (upper-class versus lower-class, blacks versus whites, industrial versus agricultural etc.) with conflicting interests that made it impossible for the government to undertake effective policies. As such, this book seems pretty commonsensical and hardly revolutionary nor particularly enlightening. Thurow takes us through the various economic problems that the US faced at the time to show how this is the case.
This problem appears to be the combined flaw of democracy - that people have a say in how the country is run - although he didn't explore that; and capitalism - the doctrine of self-interest. The groups all want to protect themselves. This means that any change will inevitably be vetoed/subject to prolonged protest by at least one group - namely, the group that will have to suffer (by seeing their incomes decline) so that the rest of the economy can benefit. This shows up in the protection of inefficient industries such as steel and textiles, the unwillingness to impose strict income and price controls etc. In effect, the economy will continue to stay stagnant until certain groups are imposed on for the sake of everyone else.
He also makes the interesting case that inflation was not really a problem, backing this up with statistics that show that the average American's standard of living rose; and income differences didn't widen. Rather, it was a matter of perception and psychology.

21 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Follow the Author

Zero-sum Society Hardcover – January 1, 1980

Popular titles by this author

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.