The Competition Question

I'm so glad socialism has come up in the presidential campaign.

Recent conversation with family member:

"Sometimes competition is good. Look at Wal-Mart. Competition drove down prices."

"At the cost of enslaving the working poor to a less-than-living wage with no benefits. But yes, I do like their prices on Loreal eyeshadow. Although if we averaged out the cost of paying for the uninsured through taxes for medicare/medicaid and higher private insurance premiums, that eyeshadow probably cost me $54.00 per color. And that's a quad color palette."

A short speech I will give to a group of impressionable college freshman:

We are competitive. But when you look at examples of great competitions you will see boundaries, goals, parameters. Capitalism and greed have no end, a ball game or a race to the moon have clear end goals achieved by groups of individuals and celebrated by many.

The only thing that capitalism has "given" us is Rock and Roll and that didn't come from competition, it came from revolution. And now, in the spirit of Chuck Berry...