Pros and cons of neo-liberal competition

The author discusses effects of market competition on inequality, innovation and suggests that opposition to crony oligarchy and advocacy of worker representation should be compatible with liberalism

One glaringly obvious downside of market competition is that in the usual absence of level playing fields and with unequal initial endowments, some will win, often unfairly, and others will lose. The way out is not to block competition, but to try to correct for initial handicaps, for information failures (which, for example, deny essential credit to small firms with low collaterals), and in the case of inequality of outcomes, help building safety nets and generous assistance schemes for those who lose out. The Scandinavian countries have been among the most successful in combining market competition (including openness to globalisation)