Nozick once said, as a sort of a joke, that capiatlsim was better for losers than socialsim precisely because it was unfair. Under socialism, you'd have no one to blame but yourself for your failures.
Do we really think that the pain of losing is so terrible and so unbearable that it cancels all the benefits we get by not giving everyone a gold star? What about love -- the pain of losing there is almost unbearable. Do we abolish romantic love because heartbreak is agonizing? Over my dead body!
jks
--- Luke Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
> Justin wrote:
>
> > I think the question, Are People Competitive By
> Nature
> > is so poorly framed on so many levels taht we
> should
> > drop it. Competitive HOW? What is the bad
> competition
> > that bothers people? And why is it bad?
>
> In addition to being denied the (often wonderful)
> psychic benefits of being
> at or near the top, those who consistently lose end
> up feeling consistently
> terrible.
>
> -- Luke
>
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