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Path: utzoo!utcsri!clarke
From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Nationalization/Crown Corps.
Message-ID: <1230@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 16:56:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1230
Posted: Fri Jul  5 16:56:53 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 17:27:07 EDT
References: <1121@ubc-cs.UUCP> <1110@mnetor.UUCP> <1229@utcsri.UUCP> <1188@mnetor.UUCP>
Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Distribution: can
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 34
Summary: 

In article <1188@mnetor.UUCP> fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams) writes:
>In article <1229@utcsri.UUCP> clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) writes:
>>
>>The problem is that "survival of the fittest" doesn't mean anything, as
>>Bishop Wilberforce pointed out some time ago.
>>
>	It was I who posted the article applying the term "survival of the
>fittest" to companies.
Oops...  sorry if I've been confusing two of you.  I ought to read names
more carefully.  Never mind, in the socialist paradise to come, no one
will have a name of his/her own.  (Or is that Bill Bennett who wants to
do that?  :-))

>                       Allow me to admit that I've no recollection of
>a Bishop Wilberforce. Nevertheless, I stand by my original concept.
>"fittest" in this context is some combination of productivity, service
>	economy of price, etc.  It will no doubt vary from product to
>	product and defy description, but the final judge is the customer!
>	If the company is fit, it makes sales! If it makes sales and
>	manages to avoid doing anything really stupid, it survives. Hence
>	the conclusion. 

Bishop Wilberforce was the one who got laughed out of court by Thomas Huxley
in the debates over evolution.  Your paragraph above illustrates why
"survival of the fittest" means nothing:  "fittest" for what?  Why, for
survival, of course!  The phrase is a tautology.

What's more, the application from evolution is to species, not to individuals.
The distinction is crucial.

Please note that I am not claiming private firms are not more efficient than
government-run organizations.  I just think that this particular biological
analogy has such an unfortunate history that it should be kept out of social
and economic discussions.