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Competition Advances Humankind
By Paul Bauer, Avon
In his recent response, "Insatiable Insanity" [December 6], Louis Jacaruso trots out old feel-good bromides that need careful examination. He thinks all of humankind's ills are the result of "worship of the money god." While eschewing "symptoms," he nonetheless points to "competition."
On the "money as god" point, it's not likely that there are many who have acquired a lot of money for money's sake alone. It's not so easy unless you inherit it. Those who have earned it did so either for the freedom it renders, or for the power it bestows. It's the latter crowd for whom we need to watch out. They certainly wish to eliminate competition. In short, the thirst for and use of power is perhaps the most corrosive of human drives. Our Founding Fathers understood this; so do all of those modern politicos who are intent on destroying restraints on government power (e.g., the campaign finance reform crowd).
However, perhaps the most ennobling human characteristic is the enthusiasm with which we compete to create improvements to the status quo. It's that competitive spirit that has more than doubled humankind's life expectancy. Competition is primarily responsible for the unparalleled levels of freedom we now enjoy in this great country—due, not least for example, to such innovations as the Internet, through which the opinions in this very newspaper can now be more widely and conveniently read.
Today there is enormous competition to discover the secrets of the human cell in order to produce cures for diseases such as cancer. Are those engaged in those pursuits doing so without consideration of the potential monetary impacts of success? Not hardly! It takes a great deal of investment (money) to mount the huge efforts required to create the diagnostic tools, conduct the painstaking experiments, and fabricate risky trial drugs. This all works like a miracle in a free market.
Therein is the problem. We're back to power. The governing class (the U.S. Congress) has a major conflict of interest in allowing innovation in such areas as cures for cancer and heart disease. They already have a serious Social Security funding problem that will swamp their capacity to otherwise use the federal purse to pander, which process keeps them in office. Can you imagine the problem Congress faces if life expectancy goes up substantially in the next decade as a result of, say, cancer cures? Enter the FDA, the plaintiff's bar, and a government prescription drug program. All of these take the financial incentive out of looking for new drugs. To further see that these disincentives stay in place, the governing class has arranged an unfair tax system. If they can just keep slightly more than half of adults well enough uneducated and on the public doll, they can get away with their charade of concern for us citizens.
Finally, passing comment must be made of Mr. Jacaruso's belief in a conspiracy to withhold "free" energy. There is no such thing as free energy. There are well-established laws of physics that make it not possible to have "free" energy. I say this with a Ph.D. in engineering. The thought that there even might be "free" energy does violence to any sense of logic. Even if free energy could be found someplace (say, underground in the form of oil), it wouldn't be free by the time it arrived in consumers’ hands. To believe that it could be is to believe that many others should work for "free" just to meet the needs of others. That wouldn't be "fair" (please forgive me for using that four-letter word).
My perennial New Years wish is that we may be spared comments from those who have not taken the time or made the effort to adequately understand the science and economics about which they choose to speak. Money and competition are not the problem; but love and respect are the answer. Power has no respect for that answer.
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