How is competition better than cooperation?

Competition or cooperation, which is the key to human success in the NEXT 100 years?

• Competition and 'free market economies' have been very good for business in the past 100 years but there are new challenges cropping up such as global warming (and other very serious environmental issues), terrorism (somewhat stemming from economic disparity) and various forms of social unrest. Can clinging to the concept of competition solve these problems? Could we all benefit from more cooperative efforts? Of course there's always going to be some competition and some cooperation but which direction should we be headed and why?

• Answer:

  It is a very timely question in a time, when we are struggling to understand the financial crisis, its causes and its solution. The most important aspect of this crisis is that it is global. That is where it differs from anything we experienced before. We live in a "new world" now, where we are completely interconnected and interdependent. Which means, that instead of the previous competitive mentality we have to shift our priority to cooperation, otherwise we keep harming this global system we live in. There are different forms of cooperation though, we can do it against our will, while suffering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YrzjrmuaUI Or we can understand, that this is all for our benefit, to help us build a new human society, where we all work for the benefit and well being of the whole system, as if the whole is healthy, the individual parts are healthy too. I hope it helps with your question, all the best.