Ask almost any Kane County homeowner about their biggest concern for the future and they will complain about the national waste disposal site that is being built there.

No one questions the need for a dump site, just its location. Of course, no community really wants to have a waste dump built in it. A dump has to be imposed on a community by the government because none would ever volunteer to have one.

This demonstrates a serious problem for societies that become increasingly more sophisticated—the by-products of the technological advances that make existence more comfortable also have a tendency to cause more people greater problems. This is a major problem in the nuclear energy industry, where the prospect of cheap, domestically controlled energy production is bedevilled by the legitimate concerns about toxic waste disposal.

Economist Lester Thurow coins the term “zero-sum” to describe this dilemma. A zero-sum problem is one in which the gains and losses equal each other. In economic terms, it means that any economic benefit for some will be at the economic expense of others.

Thurow correctly identifies the essence of the problem as a loss allocation decision. In societies where governments wield considerable authority this is rarely a problem since powerful governments routinely infringe on the rights of powerless citizens.

The United States has, for most of its history, routinely been able to allocate wealth to its white, male citizens to the disadvantage of other groups. Slavery and “Jim Crow” laws against blacks, property inheritance laws against women, and land grabs from American Indians have all been justified by the economic benefits they brought about.

The bitter irony is that real economic growth did result from these policies. America became the richest nation in the world through the technological benefits of this exploitation. Even those who are victims of this discrimination share in the benefits of this economic power. The poorest people in America still live well compared to most of the Third World.

Since the 1960s, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has done much to correct the legal causes of discrimination. This has given everybody the right to organize and combat government decisions which adversely affect them.

The acquisition of rights by those who had been denied them is certainly morally desirable, but through the zero-sum principle it has stagnated America’s growth.

The search for a solution to the zero-sum problem doesn’t seem easy to come by. The encouragement of a communal spirit of sacrifice is a quick answer but it seems unlikely to occur. Communities will not be eager to volunteer to economically handicap themselves unless they have forced guarantees that other communities will do the same.

Technological answers (efficient waste use or recycling, for example) cannot always be depended on. The means to research the problem will also be affected by the the zero-sum effect. After all, who wants a waste research plant in their neighborhood?

It may well be that there is no solution that guarantees technological growth and equal rights. If that is true, the zero-sum principle would not be a guideline for our country but its nemesis.