I was flabbergasted by Edgar Allan Beem’s latest fantasy regarding the ineffectiveness of competition (“Cooperate or perish,” April 1, 2013). Since he’s probably still using a rotary dial phone, perhaps he missed the fact that thanks to intense competition most of us now carry telephones in our pockets that have more computing power than desktops did a few years ago. Or perhaps the fact that in response to rising gasoline prices, car makers are falling all over themselves selling more efficient cars that customers demand. Southwest Airlines didn’t achieve success because it got its employees to cooperate – it created an entirely new flying experience that lured customers from competing airlines. I could go on, but why bother? Beem has become so detached from reality I suggest it’s time The Forecaster beam him to a more suitable planet.

David Murray
Falmouth