> When economic growth falls to zero the economy becomes zero-sum.
This is a bit of a fallacy since productivity and efficiency are just as important in a steady-state economy as a growing one, and perhaps more so. The inefficiency of large politically-enforced monopolies would merely turn zero into negative growth.
It's a fallacy, but one that many people perceive as true in a steady state economy. Or rather there's enough greedy people that tend to work their way into positions of power in order to extract for themselves. Bribery at every bureaucratic level is the norm in most third world countries.
Most third world countries are poor because of their low-quality institutions. To be sure, bribery used to be just as common in the pre-modern West; norms against bribery are a key part of what we think of as "modernity", "the Enlightenment" etc.
This is a bit of a fallacy since productivity and efficiency are just as important in a steady-state economy as a growing one, and perhaps more so. The inefficiency of large politically-enforced monopolies would merely turn zero into negative growth.