Dyson, the vacuum cleaner manufacturer, announces that it is going to move a large part of it's production to Malaysia. The cost of the labour it needs is apparently £1.50/hr. over there compared with £11.50/hr. over here!!!! I expect labour is even cheaper in China. The South East Asian countries aren't content to be mere workshops for long, they soon take over the design, development and research functions as well. If we are not very careful we will be reduced to Third World status as the Third World becomes the First World, the process already seems to be well advanced. Do our leaders care? No, of course not. A few years ago our Prime Minister's wife was reputed to earn £500,000pa, approx. £240/hr. (52 x 40hr wks.), for knowing a bit about international human rights law, ie for being able to read, write and speak; why should she or her husband (also a lawyer) care a jot about the fate of manufacturing, technology or science industries? In their jobs they don't have to compete in the international market, they and their kind can place a massive overhead burden on the productive work force (and upward pressure on their wages)  in the form of their obscene remuneration with impunity. At least, they can until the productive workforce has been wiped out by competition like that above.

PROBLEMS

1. Competition isn't always beneficial. Once an organisation gets a significant advantage over it's competitors it tends to become an almost impregnable, near monopoly, ie. Microsoft.
2. Competition at the level of the individual can also be damaging. In the sports arena, competitors have many chances to become winners; in general life the attitude tends to be once a loser, always a loser, no more opportunities to compete.
3. Excessive competition creates confusion and inefficiency. In some areas there are so many competing products and they are so complicated it is almost impossible to evaluate them all. This is particularly true of financial products, most people haven't got the time or the necessary knowledge to read and fully understand all the small print that comes with them, a fact that the designers of these products are not slow to exploit. The financial services industry is full of blood-sucking parasites who expect to live the sweet life at the expense of those they are supposed to be helping. There needs to be a drastic rationalisation of this industry to eliminate the parasites and get the benefits of scale.
4. Competition leads to commercial secrecy which makes mobility of staff difficult causing inefficiency and restriction of the opportunities of personnel.

POLICY

1. Competition should be regulated so that, as far as possible, it is fair and isn't damaging.
2. In any commercial field there should be at least two organisations in competition (unless international competition makes this counter-productive).
3. The performance of the competing organisations should be assessed periodically against a range of criteria. The staff of each organisation should be rewarded according to their overall success or otherwise in the last assessment.
4. All of the organisations should be able to benefit from the best practices and the advances made by the others, as identified in the assessment examination. Winning organisations should only get a temporary benefit. (This seems to be the way in which competition is made to work in Japan).
5. If necessary, staff and/or investment will be switched between organisations to keep them all competitive, provided this doesn't have an adverse effect overall.
6. Assessments might be made annually but the assessment criteria would have to include the competing organisations' preparedness for the near and longer term future.