I think you really have to address differing individual goals/preferences in order to explain this. People don’t want the same things—we care about ourselves more than each other. This means one person’s moloch-ian competition (destroying all the producer surplus) is another’s Eleu-nian dream (consumer surplus maximized by supplier competition). Every transaction has a buyer and a seller.
It’s obvious enough to be an adage that competition is great when it forces others to do their best, and sucks when it forces you to sacrifice.
I think you really have to address differing individual goals/preferences in order to explain this. People don’t want the same things—we care about ourselves more than each other. This means one person’s moloch-ian competition (destroying all the producer surplus) is another’s Eleu-nian dream (consumer surplus maximized by supplier competition). Every transaction has a buyer and a seller.
It’s obvious enough to be an adage that competition is great when it forces others to do their best, and sucks when it forces you to sacrifice.