The word competition comes from the Latin word “competere,” which is best translated as, “to strive together.” When true competitors compete, they make each other better. Today too many people think being competitive is about winning at all costs. Competitors do not compete against one another; they compete with one another. They strive together, and in the end, both are made better. This is why capitalism works, and why so many don’t seem to understand that. Competition makes us all better.
We tend to want to compartmentalize our politics, as we do with everything else, but in the real world, everything impacts everything else. We can’t separate foreign policy from economic policy from social issues because it all touches everything. This also makes it difficult to isolate a particular policy and know if its impact is positive or negative. In other words, there are no control groups, and learning the wrong lessons is very easy.
College basketball is not the only place where old ideas refuse to die. The financial markets are full of old ideas that simply refuse to go away. For example, we simply must have a bear market because one is supposed to happen every five years. Over the history of the stock market, we typically get a bear market once every five years. The idea here today is that a bear market must be looming because we have not had one since the 2008 financial crisis.
Long term. I have probably used the phrase a million times, as has anyone who has been in the financial world. No matter how one says it, long term, long haul or long run, it is a phrase that has different meaning to different folks. Let’s face it, time is relative…
Freedom works. Why is this so hard for us to understand? It is in our nature to want to control, to believe that someone has to be in control. This theme runs through every ancient religion, and overcoming that desire to control is central to all of them. Yet capitalism and its political partner, democracy, will always have their critics.
