What Is Wrong With Competition?

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WHAT IS WRONG WITH COMPETITION? It is not easy to have one precise definition of competition. Merriam-Webster has definitions ranging from “the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms” to “active demand by two or more organisms or kinds of organisms for some environmental resource in short supply” and finally to “a contest between rivals”. While all of these definitions hold their own in the context in which they are used, it becomes clear that competition, in the most general sense, is the struggle between two things. It can be applied to anything ranging from the smallest of subatomic particles to forces that shape the universe. It is no coincidence that this fundamental rule of nature is something that human beings apply to their everyday lives in order to hopefully better understand it. Everyday we compete for something whether it is resources, jobs, or sports. This competitive spirit is evident in the way we conduct our businesses, relationships with each other and ourselves, and the tenacity we exhibit towards sports regardless of whether we are playing it or merely watching. The role that competition plays in society is one of being its catalyst. There simply is no other force that gets things moving. For example, in our drive to live and outlive others, we conduct our affairs in a manner that guarantees that not everyone involved gets everything they want. Not everyone wins in the fight for resources. It is this reasoning that drives biologists to say that “competition is a negative interaction that occurs whenever two or more organisms require the same limited resource” (Carson). Every person in the world can define their own limited resource and where those self-defined limited resources intersect, competition will arise. Perhaps it is
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