Nature of Competition
More than two thousand years later, we
still respectfully and respectively refer to Confucius (孔夫子, Kǒng
Fūzǐ) and Aristotle. On one hand, there are yin (阴, negative, -) and yang (阳, positive, +) much like vice (-) and vs
virtue (+); on the other hand excessiveness (Confucius) is no less vicious (Aristotle)
than shortness (过犹不及, guòyóubùjí)
Is
competition good or bad? The “nominal” answer: Shortness thereof is no more “good”
than excessiveness thereof is “bad.” The “real” answer is “Well, it’s
opportune.”
Don’t
even think about life without competition, at any rate. Without competition, we’ll
instantaneously transit from the “short run” (T-1) in economics to
the “long run” (T0) in macroeconomics. Macroeconomists on the
flipside: So many hypotheses are in
economics while the only “intellectually
honest” theory is in macroeconomics. Please
Go Away (Dusty Springfield, 1967): “So many
words” (St. John) in economics “of no use to us until we get rid of them” (St.
Paul). Well, let’s see.
Blessed,
we on Earth are alive and well with all kinds of competition providentially provided;
and that, all the way from Here (per
125 years at most, T-1) to Eternity (T0).
All
in all, it all depends. A moderate degree of competition is what keeps our life going and that pleasant, dynamic,
exciting, dramatic, musical…., and humanistic. What then does moderato mean? Please do not ask me but Daniel
Barenboim or Yuja Wang (王羽佳,
Wáng Yǔjiā) among other maestros.
Now
on, we take a walk, more (+) or less (-) boringly in moderato, through (T0)
the nature of competition in the following order.
1) Why
competition
-The
limited vs the unlimited
2) What
to compete for
-The
good, the bad and the opportune
-Friend
vs foe and mediator
3) Who
and Where
to compete
-At
household
-Communal
-Domestic
-International
4) When to compete
-Personal:
the present vs the future
-Communal:
per accounting period
-Macroeconomic:
Where
in a diagram
5) How
to compete
That’s
a great question. But please,
Comments
Post a Comment