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RE: Competition: Good or Bad?

in #steemit8 years ago

Non-zero-sum is one very very important insight, as you observe in the article. However, the amusing thing that I have observed about markets is that there is competition in the service of consumers, yes, and therefore in satisfying social need, of course - yet there is vastly more cooperation in market economies than there is competition. Just go read (or watch) I, Pencil as a poignant illustration.

This is where I feel Austrian economists and their supporters have an amazing upper-hand, in having an economic view that includes the whole web of collaboration required for the full structure of production. It is also, sadly, where Austrians somehow fail to communicate to the rest of the world - a world dominated by this competition (or worse, theoretical perfect-competition) view of capitalism. But there is a great opportunity there, and I hope that people do a much better job of communicating this holistic attitude towards economies.

It took a while, but I came to understand the deeply beautiful and cooperative nature of markets. They coordinate, without hierarchy, but rather with value-flows between consumers and producers, the whole of human society's labors. They coordinate them in service of the needs of society's members. Until I had that vision of capitalism, it was hard for me to accept, or even entertain free-marketers proposed social theories. But it is beautiful. It manifests the saying "Order is the daughter of anarchy". It is deeply cooperative - even while having a strong competitive element.