I’m not a big fan of competition. I’m talking specifically about two types of competition we hear about often
The first type of competition is within the construct of capitalism. People are constantly referring to how competition ‘regulates markets’ and ‘prevents monopolies’.
I guess in this economic sense competition is SUPPOSED to do these things. In theory? From where I sit the market looks more like it is dominated by one or two giant companies (choose your product or service, it’s the same story) rather than a bunch of mom and pops. And, seriously, the value of the products and services available to me (and you) is diminishing daily in a corporate shareholder race to the bottom.
In other words, competition in markets, rather than promote improvement and better prices results in lower value and higher cost.
So I don’t think that’s working out very well at all for competition.
And, of course, the type of competition closer to my heart and training (and farther away from my wallet) is competition occurring (or not occurring) in nature.
If you don’t know, competition in nature only happens when resources are limiting.
In other words, individuals will not ‘compete’ or ‘fight’ over a resource unless there isn’t enough of that resource to go around.
And guess what else? Nature doesn’t tend to operate at maxima. In other words, resources are often not limiting by natural causes. Of course, humans often induce conditions where resources BECOME limiting. And sometimes competition results in those situations.
In nature, whether the cause is humans or not, competition results in speciation. Take Darwin’s finches, for example. Rather than a ‘fight to the finish’ or a ‘survival of the fittest’, species most often AVOID competition by EVOLVING. Sure, this doesn’t happen in a single generation (adaptation works on genes, not individuals) but biodiversity is a direct result of non-competitive outcomes.
In this episode, I discuss both of these and other forms of competition and try to make the point that competition is RARE and non-natural. Yet we hang our economic hats on the principle and champion the apparently magical results competition does (NOT) induce.
Please share your thoughts below, on facebook, or to kpluseiswise@gmail.com
Audio podcast:
Youtube video vlog: https://youtu.be/bftCj3AfB4Q
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