One distinction that is useful is looking at things in absolute terms or in terms of rankings. In a ranking system, someone is always going to come out the winner, and someone on the bottom. At the Tour de France, someone wins, a bunch of other guys don't, and someone comes in last, even though they are all extremely talented and fast cyclists. In business, someone might make the most money, but most people doing good work create value for society, and increase total wealth, without it necessarily being at the cost of someone else.
In other words, ranking systems and contests are zero sum games, whereas plenty of other things are not.
status is a zero sum game, while the economy is not. one can't generally create status without lowering the status of those around you, the same is not true for wealth.
There's a great cartoon about how status is zero-sum, but technological improvement is not: Two voices come from a futuristic building, complaining that no matter how much technological process, not everyone is happy, because their happiness is based on being "better" than others, and not on absolute improvement.
"Yeah. And that's where we come in," complains one voice sadly.
"But on the other hand, in what other era could a toaster and a coffee pot even be having this conversation?" reasons the other.
Is that realy so? Can we create system where person A is realy good at X, and person B is really good at Y, and thus both are respected (and respecting each other)?
In other words, can we make satuts into a partially-ordered set?
In other words, ranking systems and contests are zero sum games, whereas plenty of other things are not.