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Doing Good While Doing Well
competition requires discipline, self-discipline, discipline
under civil law, and discipline under God (Hebrew 12: 1-
11). A result of honest competition is character.
Historically, the competition of the free market has
been possible only where a common culture and a
common faith lead individuals to cooperate with each
other. We compete for cooperation in the confidence
that others respect quality, and they constantly improve
their products and service to be able to earn that
cooperation. Cooperation dies if competition dies.
Then coercion, compulsion, and force replace the free,
cooperative operations of the market.
Adam Smith, in his 1776 book, An Inguiry Into the
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, stated
what experience seems to confirm:
'It is only for the sake ofprofit that any man
employs capital in the support ofindustry; andhe
will always, therefore, endeavor to employ it in
the support ofthat industry ofwhich the produce
is likely to be of the greatest value.
He generally, indeed, neither intends to
promote the public interest, nor knows howmuch
he is promoting it By directing that industry in
such a manner as its produce may be of the
greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and
he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an
invisible hand to promote an end which was no
part ofhis intention.
Nor is it always the worse for the society that
it was no part ofit Bypursuing his own interest
he frequently promotes that of the society more
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