Competition in American Society

Competition is the lifeblood of American society. It is celebrated as a virtue at all levels of our society. It fuels business and determines who succeeds and who does not--those who are able to compete succeed, while those who cannot will fail. We celebrate it in sporting events and teach it as a value to the young from the time they begin school. School itself becomes an arena for competition--students compete with one another for a high position on the infamous "grading curve" which of necessity means that some will fail simply because others succeed. It should come as no surprise that competition is an essential and unavoidable element in our economy and that fostering competition has become a strategy for spurring growth, ending recession, and creating jobs, revenues, and a higher standard of living for everyone.

Politicians talk endlessly of making America more competitive, and the perception is clear that in recent years America allowed itself to become less competitive while certain foreign countries have become more competitive and more successful. Whicker and Moore (1988) express this idea when they state that the U.S. today is at a crossroad, "the issue of developing an economy capable of competing in the new international trade wars" (2). Competition is today much discussed in terms of technology, and improvements in technology are seen as valuable precisely because they enable our economy to be more competitive. Yet, in this area today America is seen a

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e rest of the world (Graham, 1992, 11). Whatever the specific rationale offered for the American loss in competitiveness and leadership in the world economy, inherent in all discussions is the idea that competitiveness itself is a necessary virtue and one that made the American economy great. Any reduction in economic power is attributed to the idea of competition and to our failure to prepare ourselves to compete in a changing world. Conceptions of competition are taught to managers in order to change the way they make decisions. Mills (1985) cites the case of People Express as a company that would agree with Romm about the importance of commitment, here noted with reference to new systems instituted in the company to reduce costs and increase profits: The new systems are not simply a means to the end of a more profitable business, nor even an important and independently valuable means. The new systems are not instruments of profit making at all, but rather values to which People Express should be committed regardless of the outcome on the business. The means are an independent commitment, he insists, regardless of the ends (Mills, 1985, 216). No one is decrying making profits, for that is the purpose of business, but commi

Category: Business - C