> Charlesa, there are positional goods, which are
> inherently scarce -- being the Best Whatever. Chess
> Player. Physicist. Body Builder. Singer. Etc.
Physicist and Singer do not belong in the "Best Whatever" category. There are undoubtedly many ways, some more subtle than others, to talk about what makes a Body Builder or Chess Player "best", but at base there would seem to be specific, quantifiable measures for those two to evaluate their performance (i.e. number of matches won, number of pounds bench-pressed, etc.) And in actuality, I'm not entirely sure about the Body Builder, because I don't know enough about it. But as for Singer and Physicist, they clearly seem to fall into the same category as Most Beautiful Man or Woman or Best Chocolate Chip Cookie (my mom's).
> 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? Then we can
> discuss whether we can get rid of it.
This I agree with.
--
/ dave /