Issue

The best way for a society to prepare its young people for leadership in government, industry, or
other fields is by instilling in them a sense of cooperation, not competition.

The issue argument states that in government,industry or other fields ,the best way to prepare the
youth of a country is to instill them with a sense of cooperation not competition.The idea of the
statement is quite appealing,but according to me exists only in an utopian community.

Firstly, the propensity to be the first among other fellow human beings is a typical trait of Human
nature.So,a sense of competition does not have to be taught to humans; it is embodied in the
human nature. Humans are innately rapacious, and want the always want the most of the share.

For example,according to the Nash’s equilibrium of Game theory,in the Prisoner;s Dilemma where
two thieves after the robbery ,are captured by the police and a choice is given to them to
confess.They are not allowed to communicate, and no evidence is found of their transgression.If
they confess to the crime ,then the person who has confessed will get less number of prison years
than the other person.Ideally, if sufficient cooperation is there between the two thieves ,both should
not have confessed.But ,according to Nash in the real world the equilibrium will occur at a sub-
optimal point ,when both of them actually confess to the crime.Thus, showing that even after years
of companionship,because of the evil trait of selfishness , the two thieve’s trust seems to fade away
and take a backseat, when compared to their own selfish goals.Therfore changing the status quo of
the Human nature, that is greed and selfishness is not only unrealistic but is also not beneficial.as
explained in the following paragraph.

We all have heard Darwin’s famous evolution theory:”The survival of the fittest”.The nature also
shows competition among various facets of the environment and how competition is beneficial for
Evolution.Competition brings out the best among people.As people strive for more and more , they
achieve a lot more during their journey to success.Because, there is a possibility that someone will
reach the finish line before , each individual gives his or her own best in the race of success.

Competition is the main ingredient of progress in a country in all the fields and matters.If there
would have been no competition , our country would have remained stagnant in every matter.For
example, if in politics there would not have been different political parties and instead only a single
party in a democracy, that functioned with utmost “cooperation”, then the denizens of the country
would not have gained as much ,as they would have gained in a system of multiple political parties ,
which have competition between them and in order to beat each other, and thus realizes and
satisfies specific needs of different people.Because of competiton, they are always on their toes,
because if they don’t perform according to the people’s expectation,then in the next election they
are not re-elected.This, motivates them to put their best effort.sIn technology field ,also we would
not have seen such immense growth, if it were not for the competition and the desire to come first
among the competitors.

Thus, though a sense of cooperation will turn out to be more uniform and harmonious for the
people of the country, but in terms of goals and satisfaction of needs,”competition “ will be more
beneficial for the society, in a holistic sense.
Argument

The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.

“Commuters complain that increased rush hour traffic on Blue Highway between the suburbs and
the city center has doubled their commuting time. The favoured proposal of the motorists’lobby is
to widen the highway, adding an additional lane of traffic. But last year’s addition of a lane to the
nearby Green Highway was followed by a worsening of traffic jams on it. A better alternative is to
add a bicycle lane to Blue Highway. Many area residents are keen bicyclists. A bicycle lane would
encourage them to use bicycles to commute, and so would reduce rush hour traffic rather than
fostering an increase.”

The argument revolves around the widening of the Blue Highway and the possible disdvantages ,
that is worsening of the traffic and an alternative to the problem: adding a bicycle lane to the Blue
Highway.This arguement has a number of flaws, which I will elucidate upon, in the following
paragraphs.

Firstly, the main reason for not widening the Blue Highway is not very convincing, as most
importantly we do not know the exact characteristics of the Green highway such as width and the
location of the green highway.Without this information we cannot predict that, the Blue Highway
will have the same fate as the Green Highway.Also,we do not know whether there are any
similarities between both the highways,It can be possible that the Blue Highway joins the important
areas of the city and the Green Highway is on the outskirts, and less used and less in signicance .So,
we cannot say that whatever applies to Green Highway applies to the Blue highway as well.

The alternative given by the argument is adding a bicycle lane.But , as we know nothing about the
structural aspect of the Blue Highway as well, it cannot be guaranteed that adding a bicycle lane
would lessen the traffic.It can be possible that adding a bicycle lane will, reduce the overall width of
the road, and the usual commuters of the suburbs , who don’t prefer to ride a bicycle , will face
more worse traffic jams.

Thirdly,no proper statistics or evidence is given regarding how many people are “keen bicycle
enthusiasts”.It is a plausible possibility that ,among a large number of suburbs, only a few suburbs
are enthusiasts and thus it is not right to conclude that all the citizens are keen enthusiasts.If this is
the case, then the addition of the lane would not lead to a very significant reduction to the traffic
jams on the Highway.
Also , we donot know that people who are mentioned as bicycle enthusiasts actually commute by
the Blue Highway or not.It is definitely possible, that people who are keen enthusiasts do not
commute through the Blue Highway and thus , this fact will not affect anything regarding the trafuc
of the BLUE Highway.

Even if all the people are keen enthusiasts we cannot predict that people will be equally enthusiastic
in commuting daily between the suburbs and the city ,through the Blue Highway.Nothing can be said
about this matter as we know nothing about the distances and whether the road is actually
convenient, whether it has special stops for bicycle enthusiasts and whether it is easy to ride the
Highway in a bicycle.Thus we do not know whether the people who have keen enthusiasm in riding a
bicycle , will have enough incentives to do the same everyday.It seems impossible that after a long
day at work, they will be equally excited as they were in the morning, when they were booming with
energy , and would merrily bicycle away to their homes.

Thus ,if the argument had provided us with enough evidence about the green highway :the statistics
, the structural aspects of the green highway as well as the blue highway, and also the evidence
regarding the bicycle enthusiasts and the exact or approximate number of the people as a
percentage of all the people who use the Blue Highway along with all the oyher information
presented above such as the actual amount of people who travel by bicycle to work daily, even if the
distances are large, we cannot conclude that adding a bicycle lane will reduce traffic.