Wei Dai wrote: > People don't mind competition if it's voluntary, but you can't opt out of > economic competition. I think it's a necessary evil, not something to be > desired for its own sake. Clearly some people do enjoy competition, and > they should certainly be able to participate, but what's the point of > forcing competition on people who hate it, besides efficiency? While it is may be true that many people do not "enjoy" the economic competition "forced" upon them by "society" (but they surely benefit from the positive externalities of this competition), is this any ground for political action??
There are many other "forced" kind of competition, that we (thankfully) do not consider grounds for redistribution - like the competition for mates. (I think I have stolen this point blatantly from Nozik, sorry). Would we ever say: "Uhhh, this guy is ugly and no good, bad mannered and ill tempered - but, it's no fault of his own, and he REALLY doesn't enjoy the competition for sexual partner forced upon him by society, so why don't we just force this beautiful girl to have sex with him" I DON'T THINK SO! And if you look at it, the case for "redistribution" is in fact stronger in the case of sexual partners than in the case of economic competition, since the loosers in the latter game, will at least benefit from the positive externalities of economic competition, while the loosers of the sex-game will get NOTHING! - jacob braestrup
