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When the philosopher Satchel Paige warned us not to look back (because something might be gaining on us), he couldn’t have imagined how prescient he was, even though his own career in baseball pointed the way to the world we would all someday inhabit. Restricted to the Negro Leagues for more than two decades, Paige finally broke into Major League Baseball in 1948. Within a couple of decades black ballplayers had become dominant figures in the majors, the Negro Leagues had ­collapsed—­and baseball had become a much more competitive ­place.

That will happen when barriers fall. Technology has some of the same effects: Newspapers find themselves competing with bloggers, traditional stores with Amazon, and singles bars with Cupid.com. Americans find that, thanks in part to technologies they invented or pioneered, they’re competing with workers in India, China, and other ­far-­off lands who are willing do the same work for a lot less money. Even individuals in need of a Little League logo or a personal webpage are finding people who can do the job for less in Bucharest or ­Bangla­desh.

Competition—­the reality but also the ­metaphor—­has somehow come to pervade modern life, much as we try to wish it away or pretend, as in ­five-­year-­olds’ soccer games, that it isn’t really going on. In some cities, the preschool admissions process is as fraught as the mass version of musical chairs with which top universities fill their classes. ­Stepped-­up competition is apparent in the workplace as well. Companies are less willing or able to carry unproductive employees, but in today’s competitive business environment even productive workers can receive a pink slip when circumstances persuade executives that cutbacks make sense. Companies these days are less constrained by sentiment or tradition when considering whether to outsource, move, or shut a plant. A study earlier this year by economists Thomas Lemieux, W. Bentley MacLeod, and Daniel Parent found that “the overall incidence of performance-pay jobs has increased from a little more than 30 percent in the late 1970s to more than 40 percent in the 1990s.” Bonus, commission, ­piecework—­whatever you want to call it, pay for production makes work seem a lot more competitive. When Fortune magazine reported on white-collar workers “fired at fifty” who couldn’t find comparable positions, the best advice from the experts was to embrace “involuntary entrepreneurship,” which of course means competing on your own without a company-provided pension, health insurance, sick days, or ­vacation.

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ORIGINAL: Level
How important is competition to society?

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ORIGINAL: SilverMark

Competition is vital!
Cooperation is nice...but face the facts, what has driven each nation to succeed, to provide for it's people, to allow for the weaker to be helped by those that are stronger, is competition. Is that to say that it is always fair or nice...NO!....Without the drive to succeed, to compete, to win, no one succeeds.
Not to sound unduly harsh but someone has to take the lead in each endeavor. Is everyone suited for it? No....Does it need to be entered into at the age of 3 for a spot in a pre-school? No....somewhere along the way, competition is crucial.
I am not some flag waving Republican but, I do believe in winning....it has allowed Me to succeed, to develop a business that provides for over 30 people that are given the credit daily for the business success and rewarded in more ways than money alone, although they earn a good living.
May not be a popular view here but, It is My view at any rate.
Competition is not avarice or greed is it learning to succeed or fail.

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ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

The advantages of competition are clear - but the advantages of cooperation are also clear. I wonder whether it is in the balance of these two drives that we get the best from each?

E

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ORIGINAL: SilverMark

Competition is vital!
Cooperation is nice...but face the facts, what has driven each nation to succeed, to provide for it's people, to allow for the weaker to be helped by those that are stronger, is competition. Is that to say that it is always fair or nice...NO!....Without the drive to succeed, to compete, to win, no one succeeds.