A craftsman takes wood and creates a bench. The bench is worth more than the wood. Thus, he created value. A manager does not do anything like that. He does in

A craftsman takes wood and creates a bench. The bench is worth more than the wood. Thus, he created value. A manager does not do anything like that. He does indeed do valuable work, by enabling others to create value, but he does not create value himself. But you are correct, zero-sum is a bad name for this. Do you know a better name? I was thinking about stock trading, where the money one wins, another loses, thus zero-sum.