Competition vs Cooperation

By Leon J Williams

A few words on competition and cooperation.

There are many key facets in the capitalism vs socialism debate including the role of government,

I would say that this can be characterised in 4 groups:

Competition with government regulation
Businesses and people compete against each other with the government creating favourable circumstances for competition to thrive.
There are many examples to show that regulation is needed to prevent monopolies such as the EU’s huge fines for anti-competition against companies like Intel and Microsoft.

Competition with no government regulation
Businesses compete against each other, with no government interference leading companies to grow so large they can buy their rivals, monopolies are formed. Works well in the short term, awful in the long term.
To a certain extent you could say like the US though even they have regulation of their people and businesses.

Socialism
Businesses and people compete and cooperate, taxes are higher to provide support to people who have lost out due to competition (welfare). Heavy support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and heavy taxes and regulation on large businesses to prevent monopolies. All essential services are under government control. A lot of government regulation.

Anarchism/Communism
People work together, sharing jobs and social responsibilities. ‘Businesses’ are run by those interested in running them as a non-hierarchical cooperative. No government, so no regulation.

Finally
This is not in anyway a definition of what these terms are and purely a focus on the competition/cooperation aspect.

Competition is fine when it’s football (or any sport) teams compete, one team wins the cup and the rest try again next time but with life it’s not so similar, the winners get rich and the losers become homeless, entrenched in poverty and ultimately, die.