### What is Competition? Seems an easy enough question to answer, doesn't it? And it is, with one exception: when it comes to the economy, some people suddenly seem to forget what competition really is.<br>
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<br><sub>Image by [Suzy Hazelwood](https://pxhere.com/en/photographer/1558091) - source: [PxHere](https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1528155)</sub>
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Why engage in competition? In sports and games the answer is evident: the goal of competing is to win. Any competition has a winner and one or more losers. Generally speaking, the winners are the ones who dedicate themselves most to the competition; they train for hours and hone the skills needed in their particular competition to perfection. They understand that talent and or luck alone will not bring victory; to win they must be better than the competition, more dedicated. It's not in the interest of the competitor, if they intent to win, to drag out the competition, unless they realize the opponent matches their level exactly; only then will it become a test of stamina instead of skill or strength. But in the end of every competition there's only one left standing, only one winner.
Competition means that if I develop a new technique, strategy or tactic, I will guard it from any potential opponent, keep it to myself. And I know my opponents will have the same winner-mentality, so if I can, I'll try to uncover their new techniques, strategies or tactics. If I'm able, I'll spy on my opponents and keep a lookout for the spies I'm sure my opponents have hired to spy on me. Also, I'll look for the very edges of the game's rules, look for novel ways to interpret them and see if I can bend or stretch them in my favor. And as the stakes of the game get higher, the incentive to apply these winning behaviors increases. In sports this becomes apparent on the highest levels, where the use of stimulants and other illegal substances is much more problematic, and subsequently better regulated, inspected and controlled on high professional levels, than on amateur levels. Spying and secrecy is the order of the day in an expensive and technical sport like Formula 1 for example.
> competition - noun - The activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others.<br><sub>source: [Oxford Dictionary](https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/competition)</sub>
The free market is not a sport or game, but the same rules for competition apply, and the stakes are as high as they can possibly get: survival is the prize on every level of this economic reality. This is only one of many reasons why markets will never be free, not as long as there's a shred of humanity left inside of us anyway. Another reason is the nature of competition; it will ALWAYS generate winners and losers and winners will ALWAYS be the ones who are most dedicated to win. Libertarians live in this fantasy parallel universe in which competition is eternal; no one ever really wins and no one really loses, but instead we'll just keep slugging it out and create some imagined equilibrium in which we all keep standing, never going down.
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<iframe width="1929" height="1095" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dj-U9TDRNsA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br><sub>The Importance of Competition</sub>
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Competitors in capitalism have no interest to compete. We've all learned that competition benefits the consumer, as the market finds the right price at which the consumer's demand is met most perfectly. But this only works with a fantasy definition of the word competition; the aim of this non-game is to win, to eliminate any competition as fast and efficiently as possible, and protect or gain market share. "It's the Monopoly, stupid!", should be the famous phrase... There has never been a free market, and if we somehow managed to create a perfectly free market (the horror), it would last seconds before the first winners arise and start consolidating their interests with the power they gained. And they would then become the government so fiercely hated by those who stubbornly keep wishing for a world where only the winners survive, and the rest are kept alive by their charity. And in fact, that's exactly where we are now; we're ruled by governments that govern in name of the most dedicated winners in the competition we call capitalism. What so many people like to call "crony capitalism" is simply capitalism in it's highest level of development; it's what capitalism always leads to eventually.
There is no "free" in "free markets", not in any sense of the word. Eternal competition is the freedom that's promised by capitalism, and I hope you can understand by now that competition is NEVER eternal, so capitalism can never make good on that promise; there is no second round, no second chance in this competition and you'll always end up with just a few winners. The fact that we're ruled by the winners in this competition should surprise no one; monopoly is the aim of this game and the monopolists will keep bending the rules in their favor. This is what we're up against, not just the monopolists, but the ideas they propagate and are so stubbornly anchored in so many minds still; why do you think it's the winners, the billionaires, who want us to believe in this eternal competition? Why do you think they repeat time after time that this competition is what gave them their fair chance to rise to the top, when they know they beat the game already? Why do they keep spreading the fantasy illustrated in the above linked video?
I'll close with this: even if you believe in some imagined invisible hand that will keep the competition going until hell freezes over, is that what you really want? Do you really want that eternal competition in which we're forever each other's opponents in a fight over all of life's basic necessities? Are you that confident in your winning abilities? And if you are, do you feel any concern for the losers at all, or do you believe that these losers are simply not trying hard enough? If you believe that we can all be winners in capitalism, you don't understand what competition is. Competition in general is good when it comes to better ourselves individually. But when you organize an entire socioeconomic system around competition, a plutocracy is the de facto outcome; we end up with the few individuals who are left standing at the end of the grand tournament. The below linked video explains in much further detail the fallacy of competition. I don't think it's even necessary to go into that much detail: just understanding what competition is, that there always be losers and that winners will always protect any ground they gain, that's enough, or should be enough to realize that capitalism always results in one ruling class of winners and a much larger ruled class of losers. It's simple, really, but watch the video if you need more convincing.
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<iframe width="1929" height="1095" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qWrHrgih0pg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br><sub>Monopoly Vs. Competition</sub>
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