Survival of the Fittest in Business
“The law is the survival of the fittest…. The law is not the survival of the ‘better’ or the ‘stronger,’ if we give to those words any thing like their ordinary meanings. It is the survival of those which are constitutionally fittest to thrive under the conditions in which they are placed; and very often that which, humanly speaking, is inferiority, causes the survival.” • Herbert Spencer At any given time, there may be firms of varying sizes and efficiency in an industry, possibly some making profits and others incurring losses. As long as industry is open for anyone to enter freely, an excess of price over the attainable average total costs will encourage the entry of new firms. As such new firms move in, they compete with existing firms and the most inefficient firms are eliminated. In the long-run, therefore, only those firms will remain in the industry, which Continue reading