And today’s rambling...

Competition and Cooperation

There are situations where competition can be a wonderful thing. In a free market it can mean that retailers, restaurants, gas stations etc. etc. will be competing for my business by hopefully lowering prices, increasing quality and even providing better customer service.

There are other situations where competition is not the best way to cultivate income. In my opinion those would include education, the arts and other charitable organizations. I do not think I will get any argument that competing for educational funding through the FCAT testing results would be a prime example of competition failing the overall objective of educating all of our children with the best resources available.

A recent situation, has given me the impression, that in an attempt to imitate business structure and profits, many well meaning and deserving charitable organizations have adopted an unattractive corporate mind-set of competition, scarcity, and greed to win our charitable dollars.

I hope, that if the current economic condition has a lesson to teach us, it would be that the spirit of giving is an innate human characteristic that comes from the heart and will always be enhanced through good will, gratitude and cooperation , not competition.