Competition is beneficial rather than harmful. Do you agree?
Competition is the engine of life. It improves education systems around the world. It drives companies to rise above and beyond each other, driving economies. Thus, competition is beneficial rather than harmful because it benefits many aspects of human society.
Competition helps countries develop their education system, empowering its citizens. When the government eyes the skill sets that people of its rival countries have, it can make changes to its education policies, helping to prepare students for the workforce better. This empowers students as they have the necessary skills to find jobs for themselves after they graduate. For example, Singapore’s education system recently shifted its focus from rote memorisation to joy of learning, which helps students to cultivate lifelong learning. This helps Singapore emulate other good education systems like the Finland education system, which has minimal emphasis on rote learning. The willingness to constantly update themselves with new skills helps students prepare themselves for their future career, where one has to constantly train themselves on new skills that will suit the changing nature of his or her job. Thus, competition is beneficial for education systems around the world as it drives governments to improve education for its students.
Competition also benefits economies. Competition between businesses drives innovation as companies strive to provide the best goods and services it can offer for its customers. This helps a country to develop its economy. More companies are willing to do business in that country, so more jobs will be open to people in that country in order for the country to penetrate its market. This helps to increase employment as there are more job opportunities provided, so more people are willing to spend money on goods and services as they have paid jobs, helping money to move between businesses and people, stimulating the economy. For example, the top 5 most competitive economies in 2020 – Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands and Hong Kong are highly developed countries. The competitiveness of these economies encourage companies to do business in those countries, fuelling their economies. Thus, competitiveness benefits the economy as it helps to fuel the movement of money between consumers and businesses.
However, critics argue that competition corrupts people as they are encouraged to use dishonest means to surpass others. They claim that this is seen in the worst politicians around the world like Donald Trump, who would do anything to stay in power.
This brings me to my last point. Competition drives people to do well in a legitimate way. Effective competition motivates one to improve himself to make themselves get opportunities more easily. Unscrupulous ways of wining are despised, and they disadvantage one as it prevents future opportunities from coming to them. For example, Donald Trump’s unhealthy competitiveness to stay in power made him despised by the world. In the competition that is the US elections, the candidate who played fair and square (Joe Biden) won the election. Thus, competition incentivises fair play as people are forced to look in the long term, and come up with the best strategies to gain opportunities. And the best strategies are the honest ones.
In conclusion, competition is beneficial rather than harmful. Competition drives the individual and the country to improve. However, it must be kept in check to ensure that people only use legitimate means to compete against others.
