Competition vs. cooperation

One of the ingredients of the success of humankind is cooperation. Humans have learned from early stages to organize and coordinate individual efforts towards common goals and this provided them with lasting advantages over other species. Today’s complex society requires an ever higher level of integration, coordination and cooperation between individuals. Somewhat paradoxically however, one of the important forces of the free market economy is competition. Competition between firms in the context of perfectly competitive markets it is known to bolster productivity and innovation, which ultimately leads to the desired progress. It is however wrong to assume that competition should be stretched at every level of society. Certainly, a certain degree of competition between individuals, even within the same firm, or between countries might have some positive effects but the risk of serious problems increases exponentially with the increase in competition between these entities. I have written before about the line that should be drawn (in red) between the corporate world and the private citizen. Competition has positive effects in the corporate world, but not necessarily outside it. In fact, I would argue strongly in favor of cooperation over competition and the future belongs to those societies that favor cooperation over individualism.