“Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.” -Milton Friedman
I just googled "Fixed pie fallacy" - I was assuming (probably wrongly) that most people were familiar with it. I'm not even certain Friedman was the first to identify it.
The first thing I come up with on Google is [1]. It's a decent overview.
Sure, there's no disputing that the fixed pie fallacy exists, but you have not made a convincing argument that this situation is an instance of the fallacy.
If the quality we're interested in is "being Harvard," then no, Harvard is not fungible. But if the quality is "providing a college education," the Harvard is extremely fungible in many cases.
People don't seek Harvard for the education only. They seek it or lots of things: access to wealth, access to knowledge and network, increased status, increased reputation.
Otherwise why would there be exceptional demand (and price) for harvard?
I just googled "Fixed pie fallacy" - I was assuming (probably wrongly) that most people were familiar with it. I'm not even certain Friedman was the first to identify it.
The first thing I come up with on Google is [1]. It's a decent overview.
[1] http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2006/12/fixed-pie-fallacy.html