President Coolidge’s statement, "The business of America is
business", still points to an important truth today — that business institutions
are of more concern in American society than any other kind of organization,
including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great
prestige One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based
on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since
competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by Americans,
competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in
itself, it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual
freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.
Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there
is no monopoly (垄断) of power. In contrast to one, all powerful
government, many businesses compete against each other for profits.
Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers,
it will lose to competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Where
many businesses compete for the customers’ dollar, they cannot afford to treat
them like inferiors or slaves. A contrast is often made between
business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because
business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of
freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the
people and business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that
competition is as important, or even more important, that democracy in
preserving freedom. Competition in business is also believed to
strengthen the idea of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open
and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her
social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American
alternative to social rank based on family background. Business is
therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather
than the aristocratic (贵族的) idea of inherited privilege. According to the author, in many countries success often depends on one’s ______ .