by Paul Jacob

The other day I took on the common blather about "competitiveness." I argued that this standard talk encourages us to think about trade and government in the wrong ways. It trains us to see conflict where conflict is only transient.

Cooperation, I pointed out, is what we really are up to when we trade goods and services. And cooperation tends to benefit everybody.

Does this sound odd? Aren't free-marketers like me always yammering about "competition"? Well, some of the free market's best minds and biggest champions emphasized cooperation.

Does it sound leftist? As the saying goes: "Cooperation, not competition!" Well, that is silly. We need both. But the positive side of what we want is cooperation.

Competition works as a side-constraint training us to cooperate better. Except when we get sucked into political games of regulation and taxation. Then everything goes whacko, as governments make it harder to cooperate through trade.

And worse is what happens next, to offset this: Politicians "compete" for the biggest businesses by giving special deals and subsidies. The overall effect? Corruption. Grinding inefficiency. Economic chaos.

That's what happens when governments compete for business. It's an international epidemic. Governments getting involved where they shouldn't, and often in the name of "competitiveness." Phooey.

Market competition, on the other hand, is good for us. Just don't lose sight of what it is good for: our mutual prosperity.

Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org.