A party size pizza is placed in the middle of the table. Do you subscribe to the idea that for every piece someone else eats, that is one less slice for you? Or, do you believe that there is an unlimited amount of pizza to fill everyone’s desires?
If you are in the first group of thinking, then you agree with the “limited good theory” that all goods are finite. You are in good company. This idea has motivated individuals and societies for thousands of years. The amount of land, money, food, everything available is held to be limited, so every time one person profits, another one loses.
Because there is a limited amount of resources, every war was fought to take from someone else to give to yourself. The ancient Roman Empire was therefore not for “evil conquest” but simply a survival mechanism to feed and provide for the Romans. It was also good if you did not kill all the people you conquered so they could continue to plow the fields and pay tribute. That is one reason why the Roman Empire lasted for over 1,000 years.
However, societies that adhered to this concept were strongly equalitarian among members. Granted, the more elite of the society got more than the lower classes. But within classes everyone was equally the same—eople are just about as “rich” or as “poor” as everybody else.
The idea of “limited good” was first noted by George M. Foster in his 1965 article, “Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good.” Here is where it gets interesting.
Among the Mexican peasants (in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán) that Foster studied, he saw their lack of interest in new opportunities because of their perception of the world as a “competitive game” of one winner/one loser.
Their “limited goods” concept extended to other aspects of life. “When a happy, healthy two-year-old began to lose weight and become fussy, the women told me that it was because the mother was pregnant again.” The Mazatec thought the child was losing weight because the mother was sharing her limited supply of love with the unborn child she was carrying.
“Someone’s advantage implies someone else’s disadvantage.” A farmer who developed a way to grow more crops was shunned as the village thought it would come at another farmer’s expense. The other’s crop production would decrease.
The Industrial Revolution showed that pizza pie could be unlimited. Need more food? Make the recipe, bake the pie, and everyone eats their fill. Marxism and Communism start with the premise of limited goods that should be shared equally. Unfortunately, that does not increase production.
“Crab mentality,” which some people think is unique to Filipinos (Hint: not even close), is based on the “limited goods” fallacy. We attribute it to greed. We say it is envy and jealousy that spawns this, such that “if I can’t have it, neither can you.” But it is the idea that “if you have it, there is none left for me” that creates this mindset.
However, take away the thought that life requires one winner/one loser because money, love, success, and goods are limited, and outcomes change. Take the other guy out of your “limited goods” concept, and here is what happens.
The impact of crab mentality on performance was quantified by a New Zealand study in 2015, which demonstrated an 18 percent average exam result improvement for students when their grades were reported in a way that prevented others from knowing their position in rankings. Everyone can get 100 percent correct on the test. You just have to believe it.
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