Competition -- the good, bad, and the ugly

     Competition exists in all aspects of our lives. Sometimes it is not obvious -- which apple looks the best to eat? Do I like the green shirt or the red one? What is my favorite subject in school? Choices involve competition even if the things among which one must choose are not actively competing against each other. In these cases, the choice is usually made by our subconscious acting from our personal histories.
     Competition can be eliminated via monopolies -- either regulated or unregulated. An unregulated monopoly is the only source and it can disperse it's products in any way, and at any price, at any usable quality. A regulated monopoly provides the only source but there are outside agencies that determine the parameters of its ability to sell -- quality, price, availability.
      Even if there are two or more sources for a product, competition can be avoided if the sources make agreements between themselves about conditions of each of their production and distribution. Splitting the market, agreeing on certain lower limits on price, active sharing of research, and so forth can give an appearance of competition while the reality is just that the market is shared to enable all sources to maximize their profits.
     If a product is not wanted, there can be no competition. Of course, most new products start as an unwanted entity in a condition of unregulated monopoly. They now have to persuade people that they want or need the product. This establishes the market and the introducing source can take advantage of their situation to establish their association with the product. Once the market has been established, then competition will appear (unless squashed by the introducing, or largest, company -- suppressing competition legally or illegally).
     Each source for a competing product (and the product can be merchandise, services, political candidates, locations, or any other item from which one must make a choice) wants to persuade the buyer that they have the "best" product.  Advertising and marketing attempt to create a specific positive perception -- which may, or may not, be in agreement with measurable, and verifiable, qualities.
     The grand prize for an advertising/marketing division is to establish a brand such that people will choose according to the brand and only minimally (or not at all) evaluate the qualities of the products. On the scales of evaluation, a positive brand image is a heavy weight on the side of choosing that sources products. This can be reasonable, as brands are established by satisfying people with products on a consistent basis. However, if the brand becomes the only criterion, there is no longer any need of any positive qualities. Eventually, a product that has only brand recognition and is a poor product will lose its brand reputation and effectively have to start over within the market.
     During the phase of true competition (no brand loyalty, no monopolies, required by the consumers) between two or more sources, competition can achieve continuous improvement of the products. One source "wins" and the other examines the reasons and improves their product to the point where they start "winning" and then the OTHER source starts improving their product. Once again, this can apply to many different products -- social and business. So, during this phase, there may be a "lesser evil" or "less bad" but making a choice towards that direction still continuously improves the choices from all sources.

The math of gerrymandering -- how, why, and where

     Lots of news articles on the topic of gerrymandering of late -- mostly about political bias and court decisions. But just what is gerrymandering and how does it work? The word was created as a merging of the name of Governor Gerry of Massachusetts and the word salamander -- due to an artist's perception of the way the electoral districts were created (from Wikipedia).

     Gerrymandering is the process of creating boundaries such that one group has the advantage over another group. It is particularly used if the process gives a minority group control over the majority group.
     Districting occurs to divide up larger areas into smaller areas. For federal government in the U.S., it is a result of the Constitution and the periodic census. For the House of Representatives, the number of representatives per state shifts depending on population as reflected by the census. Within that state, districts are created that have approximately the same number of people within each district so that each person can have an "equal representation" compared to others in the state. For state and local districting, the rules can vary from that although the principle of "equal representation" is a common ground rule.
     Note that the representation of the Senate in the U.S. does not follow this general formula. With a fixed number of Senators per state, less populous states have greater representation per person. This was done deliberately to make sure that states had equal say in certain legislation. It carries over into the Electoral College of the U.S., with less populous states having a greater proportional say than the more populous states (although the total numbers are still greater for the more populous states).
     How does it work? Let's say that we have a state divided into 100 districts (I think of it as a 10 by 10 grid). Each box/district has 100 people in it. Thus, there are a total of 10,000 people in the state (10 x 10 x 100).
     Assume that group A makes up 65% (6,500 people) within the state. Group B makes up 35% (3,500 people, there may well be more than two groups but let's keep it simple).
     One method of districting would put 65 people from group A and 35 people from group B in each district. If this is done then, within each district, group A has democratic control (assuming equal voting by each group -- not often the case in real life). Group B has very little direct control.
     Another method would put 100 people from group A in each of 65 districts and 100 people from group B in each of the remaining 35 districts. This allows for proportional representation within the state or federal level but, locally, each group would have a monopoly within its district.
     However, if we put 100 people of group A in each of 35 districts (3,500 people -- leaving 3,000 people) and distribute the rest of group A equally among the remaining 65 districts, we would have approximately (not quite exactly) 46 (3000 / 65) people from group A in each of those 65 districts. Group B would have about 54% of the population in each of those 65 districts. Thus, group A would control 35 districts (35% of the state/federal vote) and group B would control 65 districts (65% of the state/federal vote). The power of the minority is flipped with that of the majority. This is the situation that is often the focus of the term gerrymandering.
     Sometimes, as in the case of Maryland, the term gerrymander is used in shifting of the voters -- according to percentage of registered voters, Party B should have 3 out of 10 representatives; it has 1.
     There is a limit beyond which gerrymandering is not possible. For example, if 90% of the state were in group A, it would still be possible to keep the 90% representation by putting all of group A in 90 districts but it would be impossible to distribute them such that group B would take over control.
     Often, the controlling group determines how the districts are divided. Thus, once gerrymandering has occurred, it is easy to maintain control by the controlling group (even if they are the minority group) unless the total percentage of group A grows enough to preclude gerrymandering by group B (they can try, but it won't work). This is the situation that has been, and probably will continue to be, presented before the higher courts.
     It is fairly easy to determine if the minority is overriding the majority but fair districting is difficult to do to allow proportional state/federal representation and still have local (within the district) non-monopolies of the dominant group in that district.
     One solution would be to dissolve artificial grouping (George Washington hated the concept of political parties) but that is not very likely to happen.
     Although it is usually not called gerrymandering, the same process occurs in the division of a metropolitan area into school districts. The school districts COULD be created such that each district has the same tax revenue base -- ensuring that the schools within each district have the same amount of money to spend per student as in other districts. That is not often the case and the result is school districts with a higher amount per student and other districts with a lower amount per student. This could be avoided by spreading the revenue distribution over the entire metropolitan area rather than per district -- but that is often considered "unfair" by those in wealthier districts.

Comparison shopping: When no choice seems to be a good one.

     I am a consumer. I admit it. I also try to make conscious choices -- picking products from companies that are less harsh to the earth, that work constructively with their employees rather than against them, and so forth. These are characteristics of the companies that are important to me that lead me to consider products in the first place.

     But, beyond that, I want to pick the product that seems to be the "best" to me. In order to do that, I need to understand what qualities I want, or feel that I need. Once I understand that, I check reviews and product comparisons to see what products best match to my desires. It is a logical process but it can drive people around me totally nuts if this is not the way they approach purchasing items. (The way they approach evaluations also drives me nuts -- it is an equal opportunity situation 😄 )

     In what is referred to as a "free market" situation, it is possible to make decisions solely upon the perceived qualities of a product. Qualities can include appearance, durability, price, features, societal responsibility, and so forth. Note that the perception is what counts. If a societal section decides that orange is the most beautiful color for eyeglasses then that is it. If a tall person is looking for a car then the head and leg room of the driver's seat area will be of great importance and value. If a short person is looking then they will consider a completely different selection of cars based upon their own needs -- probably for seat adjustment and ease of access to hand and foot controls. Each person has different needs and, thus, different sets of qualities.

     Some qualities should be more objective. A new tire with a lifetime of 50,000 miles should be considered to have better wear than another tire that has a lifetime of 20,000 miles. Of course, there may be other qualities that are more important than lifetime -- such as the ability to handle wet roads in Seattle (which may be of no interest in the Sahara).

     But what happens when you have only two choices of tires -- one that has a lifetime of 20,000 miles and one that has a lifetime of 15,000? All other qualities equal, people choose the tires that last 20,000 and the manufacturer of the 15,000 mile tire goes back to their labs and tries to develop a tire that lasts 25,000 miles. This is called constructive competition. The end result of such competition is the development of better products and lower prices for consumers. This is the ideal situation for the consumer.

     What happens when there is only ONE (1) supplier of tires for a region? They sell 20,000 mile tires for a while and then they decide to start selling the 20,000 mile tires for a higher price and selling a 15,000 mile tire for the same price as they used to get for the 20,000 mile tire. This is called a monopoly situation and is not a good one for the consumer or the quality of products. Monopolies can either be established by "natural" restriction of access to resources (all of the widgets are found only in areas controlled by a company) or by economic leverage (all of the competitors are under-priced until they go out of business or are purchased by the larger company). Laws can be created to control this situation to improve the situation for the consumer and for the improving qualities of the product -- but sometimes no laws are created and the monopoly continues to exist and degrade quality and inflate prices.

     By definition, there cannot be a monopoly with more than one company in active competition. But there can be private agreements between two or more companies that allow both, or all, to expand their profits at the expense of the consumers and which produce no constructive competition. This group of two or more companies can be called a "cartel". Although no single company within the group is a monopoly, they are able to control access to resources and to the consumers so that other companies that are not part of the cartel cannot compete. Laws can be devised to restrict this but they are much more difficult to monitor and enforce -- and, once again, it is possible that no law will be created.

     Finally, it is also to the advantage of each company to restrict comparisons. This can be done by restriction of the movement of information (control of media access, for example). It can also be done by creating "brand loyalty" -- such that the consumers directly identify with the product of the company rather than the qualities of the product. With sufficient brand loyalty, a company has a base of consumers for which it needs to provide neither quality nor value.

     So, on to the title of the blog. What happens when no choice seems to be a good one? In a free market situation new companies will arise if adequate constructive competition does not take place among existing companies. Old companies die away if they cannot maintain satisfaction of their consumer base. This can only happen in a truly free market and a truly free market can only exist with regulation and supervision. Otherwise, monopolies, cartels, and other restrictions penalize the consumers and the quality of the products in favor of the profits of the companies.

     I used tires as an example of a product. In reality, anything that people choose (or do NOT choose) is a product. This may include political candidates, or services (education, for example), or resources (water, for example), as well as manufactured products. Within any product marketing situation the free market allows consumers the best options. Giving the illusion of a free market while actually controlling the choices of the consumer favors the producers. It is a continual struggle as the needs of each are weighed against each other.