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.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree

The idea of competition has been integral to the human condition since prehistoric times, in which survival of the fittest governed the success of individuals to thrive in an environment of limited resources. The advent of civilization has to some extent lessened this principle, as the concept of cooperation now allows those with more to help those with less to still achieve moderate success. But in modern times, has the concept of competition been completely supplanted by the idea of cooperation? Especially as we consider the skills with which to imbue the next generation of workers, we must consider whether one of these antithetical ideals is more important than the other, and whether cooperation has in fact become the favored attribute. While it is true that cooperation is a necessary skill for success in government, industry, and other fields, a healthy sense of competition is also mandatory in each of these areas, making cooperation alone insufficient toward guaranteeing success.
Cooperation is a necessary skill in government, industry, and more, as all of these endeavors require one to work on a team where each teammember is recognized for different skills and responsibilities. In government, there are many teams at work. A representative must be able to work effectively with his or her party to produce a bill, and to garner enough support to ratify it as a law. Oftentimes, cooperation across the aisle is also required to gain the support of some of the opposing party in order to achieve a solid majority towards producing a law. This is additionally true in the executive branches of government, where in order to execute a planned law, different members with various responsibilities must be willing to take charge of their respective areas to make the desired effect happen. This idea in fact mirrors what is observed in industry, where diverse teams must be in communication and in agreement in order to guarantee the production and sale of a product. This process often involves cooperation of the research and development, manufacturing, sales, and marketing teams, in addition to cooperation between individual employees within a team. Since each employee and each team is responsible for individual tasks that are connected to each other, there must be a cooperative degree of communication and agreement in order to guarantee success.
At the same time, a healthy degree of competition is paramount to success in government. Democratic governments are based on the idea of competition: competing ideas or candidates are brought forth that require competition for the votes of constituents to accept the ideas, and forgoing such competition destines one for failure in the field of government. The best example of this is in an election, which is a raw form of competition. If a candidate aspires to hold office, he or she must launch a campaign that competes with other candidates, arguing for why his or her ideals and policies are superior to the competing candidates. The end goal is to compete well enough to win over a majority of voters. Additionally, even for those already in office, there must be competition in order to achieve the best possible legislative bills or executive plans. Many government workers or representatives may come up with radically different ideas, and the only way to achieve the best possible idea is to allow competition, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of proposals in order to choose the best possible outcome. Without the ability to compete, a person cannot be successful in the field of democratic government.
Moreover, in a capitalist society, competition governs the activity and success of industry, requiring adaptation in response to competitors in order to build a successful enterprise. A company can only be successful if enough consumers purchase goods or services from that company as opposed to other alternative companies in the industry. Therefore, if a company has inadequate goods, or if the prices are too high or marketed ineffectively, they cannot compete and hence lose business. In order to be successful, then, those in industry must be aware of how to advance their own company above those of others. Even at the employee level, a sense of competition is fundamental to having a successful career. Promotions are only given out to a finite number of employees, thus to earn such a desirable outcome, one must be prepared to compete with his or her colleagues. Employees must work more effectively than their colleagues, and be able to tout their accomplishments, or else they run the risk of going unrecognized and forgoing the promotion. Hence, success in industry is highly dependent on the idea of competition.
Altogether, although cooperation is a fine-sounding ideal that is one important ingredient in the recipe for success, it cannot guarantee success in its own right. To have a successful, influential career in government, industry, or other endeavors, one must be willing to compete also, and to rise to the top through the struggle. While cooperation is an important skill to have, a healthy amount of competition is also important to success, and so competition must also be taught to the next generation of workers.