The economic
system of a capitalist society is a system of division-of-labor. In this
system, each individual devotes his labor to the production of goods and
services that are consumed by others, while what he consumes is produced by
others.
This represents
voluntary social cooperation of the most intensive and extensive kind
imaginable—a cooperation of hundreds of millions, indeed, of billions of people
all across the world in serving one another’s needs and wants.
Economic
competition is nothing other than the process of organizing this social
cooperation. It determines which individuals produce which goods, by what
methods, and to what extent.
For a
complete elaboration of the nature and effects of economic competition, see my
CAPITALISM: A TREATISE ON ECONOMICS, available in hardcover, 2-volume paperback,
and Kindle editions at https://amzn.to/3kd4y39
There you can learn, for example, why there is room for all in the competition of capitalism, how people of lesser ability are enabled to outcompete people of greater ability, and how its effects are the opposite of competition in the animal kingdom.
