Zero sum games and nationalism

I was listening to The Economist podcast today and really liked a point taken from one of the editorials in the print edition. Referring to the growing economy of China and the possibility that it'll one day replace the US as #1 in a number of economic categories, the point was being made that there is nothing wrong with being number 2, or 3, or 10, especially when economies are growing. Economics is not a zero sum game. One country's economic growth does not come at the expense of another's - in fact it's more likely that when one economy is growing, another will too as is the case of Japan's economy getting a boost from trade with China.

So I guess at the end of the day, whoever is #1 or any other number is more of an issue to chest-beating nationalists than to anyone else, so long as the cash keeps flowing and economies keep growing.