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The New Invisible Competitors
In our globalized economy, competitors can suddenly appear out of nowhere—if we can see them at all. The new environment spells trouble for some people, opportunity for others.
Remember the Archie comics? Archie and his conceited rival Reggie battle for the affections of Betty and Veronica, and the two girls, though they are best friends, jockey for the attention of Archie, the affable all-American boy. They have been at it for more than 60 years, and in the early days the basic situation wasn’t far removed from the experience of many Americans, especially in small towns. Indeed, cartoonist Bob Montana based the Archie characters on people he knew from his high school days during the 1930s in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Most romantic competition occurred within small groups of people who knew one another. The girl or guy would choose, perhaps the couple would marry and settle down, and often the loser ended up living down the street or across town. Romance was full of heartbreak and anxiety, but at least you knew who your rivals were and who was beating you.
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Tyler Cowen, the author of the new book Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist, is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and in no way represent the views or opinions of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This section is moderated by Wilson Quarterly staff.
comment re "invisible competition"
Great essay. I would add, however, a word or two about the problem of deception, which is more prevalent in settings involving invisible competition
Posted by: Enrique | 1/22/08
Competition
This essay stops a bit short of saying, what probably needs to be recognized. The function of competition in any socio-economic perimeter, is to determine who does what more effectively; and therefor how things may most optimally be done. As the perimeters widen, or overlap, the function expands.
Posted by: R. Richard Schweitzer | 1/22/08