Narrow Reapeated Reading1(Three Paradoxes of competition)

1. Competition is the selfish pursuit of happiness; through competition individual selfishness leads to universal happiness. For example, a selfish shopkeeper gives a better service than the next one to attract customers. If all shopkeepers are equally selfish, then the shopper will get the best of all possible deals.


2. Competition simultaneously creates wealth and poverty. It has made possible the enormous material progress of the past 200 years by unlocking the energies of society, yet it has spelt misery for tens of millions of workers involved in the creation of that wealth.


3. Competition means that you as a person can have more but be less. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet suffers the loss of his soul? In any competition, winners are rewarded with prizes. In the contemporary society everyday status attaches to the external trappings of wealth-the house, the car, etc. We are all to often judged by what we own rather than by what we are.