Member-only story
Unless we stop it.
The American ethos is that competition is good. It forces people to do their best and, despite some friction, benefits us all.
Competition makes us more productive. We get better products and services. Prices are kept in check. Yes, not all is bliss, but we live in a world of (relative) plenty rather than on the edge of starvation and ruin.
At least that’s the story. The story is wrong.
We now know what happens when you combine elective government with capital markets. A small number of wealthy individuals bribe politicians to game the system. Corporations — fictional persons — game the system for favors and preferential treatment over actual persons. Giant corporations and a wealthy few use both humans and the Earth for their personal benefit. That is, most of the people on Earth and the planet itself is reduced to servitude. Because people are paid some money in exchange for working full-time their entire lives for the corporations/plutocrats, they are called “free.” This is a hugely dishonest use of the concept of “freedom.”
In fact, we don’t all benefit. Even the wealthy plutocrats don’t, ultimately, benefit. Because we all live on the same Earth and this system is destroying the biosphere. Competition is a losing strategy for all living beings.
