Competition

Pursuing fulfilment without harm leads to free and fair competition, competition in which we realise our potential but do not harm other’s. It is a struggle to be ourselves, not a struggle against each other.

When we compete, we must not harm. To harm is the wrong way, it contravenes the principle of no harm. The right way is to compete by doing our own best in our own way, not by denigrating or excluding others.

Fair competition in open and free markets, according to the principle of no harm, facilitates the realisation of our potential. Competition tells us who is better at different things and what methods produce the best results. Competition provides a driver for improvement. It helps us find niches where we are best and avoid those where we are worst. Competition is an important, democratic method of sorting and filtering effort and stimulating improvement without central planning or control.

Competition in markets and in trade is not a zero sum game. There are no absolute winners or losers. It is not a game with a fixed beginning and end. It is unending and time independent, the options endless and plays continuous. It is about doing better and finding what we are best at, not winning. Only those of following the wrong way (of money with harm) try to win absolutely by putting others out of business, by harming.

[Excerpt from The Common Purpose Manifesto]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Today's Scenario?

"If 1 percent of the population own 90% of all the productive capital and land, and most labour to produce goods and services is done by robots and AI agents then how can the capitalist system work in distributing goods and services across the whole population? Again, how can the 99% of the population gain the goods and services they need to survive if they do not have capital and their labour isn't required in the market?" Gemini 2025-06-18 The scenario you've described, where a tiny fraction of the population owns most of the productive capital and land, and robots/AI perform most labor, presents a profound challenge to the traditional capitalist system's ability to distribute goods and services across the whole population. Here's a breakdown of the issues and potential solutions discussed in economic and futuristic thought: The Core Problem: Lack of Income for the 99% In a traditional capitalist system, income is primarily derived from two sources: Labor: ...
Read more

The freedom to be who you are

Interesting little article by Arthur C. Brooks on ' The Link Between Self-Reliance and Well-Being: Individualism is about having the freedom to be who you are '. Here's a short quote: "As a general rule, researchers find that individualism in a country strongly predicts the average level of well-being, even when correcting for life expectancy, access to food and water, and other variables." Ben Wallace Author The Common Purpose LinkedIn - http://nz.linkedin.com/in/benwallace13
Read more

The Shared Base Income (SBI) - quick intro

Income seeking is the desire to build enough wealth to ensure financial security. Financial security gives people the financial independence not to need to work for an income because they have enough wealth to sustain themselves without one. With financial independence, we can choose how we contribute and be safe from loss of income for any reason (such as illness, accident, whatever). At a very high level of wealth, people have the equivalent of guaranteed income such that they can choose how much work, and what work, they do. They have the financial security, the financial independence, to do this. One way to help people get off the rat-race of pursuing ever higher incomes to generate ever larger stores of wealth to gain financial security, is to just give them than financial security directly via a guaranteed income. This is what universal basic income plans seek to do. Importantly, the universal basic income does not have to be only in direct payments. In fact, it is more effective...
Read more