The Creative Monopoly

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/opinion/brooks-the-creative-monopoly.html?_r=1

Adam Smith on the Benefits of Competition

In every profession, the exertion of the greater part of those who exercise it, is always in proportion to the necessity they are under of making that exertion... and, where competition is free, the rivalship of competitors, who are all endeavouring to justle one another out of employment, obliges every man to endeavour to execute his work with a certain degree of exactness... Rivalship and emulation render excellency, even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and frequently occasion the very greatest exertions.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter I, Part III, Article III. ed. Edwin Cannan, 5th Edition London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1904.