Monday, May 21, 2007

Capitalist or Socialist?

What's best for the "little" little leaguer's....keeping score or not? Is no score wimpy? Does it overprotect? Is competition a good thing for these young egos? Or does it damage them by creating winners and losers, haves and have-nots? Is it fair that some kids are blessed with great athletic skills and others are not? What about good looks, smarts? We aren't all equal are we. I've been thinking a lot about capitalism, socialism, etc. I can see good and bad in both. What if you have a job that is constantly open to competition (starting quarterback, most sales positions, small business owners, etc)? It can be uncertain, stressful, downright tough....but it does bring out everything we have..we must give our all to survive. On the other hand think of other kinds of secure jobs without competition (tenured teachers, lots of government agency positions, monopolies)....people can become lazy and too secure so that the end product isn't so good. But the stress of constant competition could undermine some of these positions so that no one would take the job. I guess the answer depends on many factors. Perhaps combinations of both theories work best.

I guess one of the reasons I love competitive golf is that is pure capitalism...shoot a good score or you're out and it's all on me. It drives me to practice and achieve things that I wouldn't do otherwise. On the other hand, I would hate it if my wife decided who her husband would be weekly, based on the prior week's performance. Makes you think doesn't it?