People can achieve goals by cooperation rather than competition.

My opponent is attempting to remove the context of "in achieving a goal" from this debate almost to the point of arguing that "capitalism is better than communism". For example, in response to my scenario with a patient and a doctor having the common goal of the patient being able to walk again and cooperating to achieve that goal my opponent said: "Let's set a situation where there is no competition and only cooperation exists. First possible thing that could happen is since there is no competition, doctors would not have to try to increase their skills, or lower their prices in order to lure patients. Therefore, patients would not be trated with diligent care because doctors do not have to worry about the quality of their work. The only thing they have to do is to cooperate with doctors, and set the price as high as they can. Patients will not get any option other than be victims of the doctors' COOPERATION." Nowhere in my opponents response is there a "GOAL". The context of a goal has been completely removed. My opponent is trying to argue the ultimate merit of competition over cooperation (That is another debate) and even in my opponents example the cooperation is limited to similar parties. The doctors are only cooperating with the doctors and not cooperating with the patience, even though a doctor would see many more patience than doctors during their practice. My opponent then tries to justify it in the following statement with: "Going back to my opponent's argument, what would be the doctor's primary MOTIVATION to SET THE GOAL, which is to heal some stranger's health? It is to gain more success than other doctors, or to help more people than other doctors, which is another example of competition." Please note the terms "Motivation" and "set the goal" are not the same as "in achieving a goal." My opponent then suggests some alternative goals that are based entirely on competition "MORE success than OTHER DOCTORS" and "help MORE people than OTHER DOCTORS". Since my opponent appears intent on only using competitive based goals (better than the other/rest), I will dispense with the vast majority those using the goals my opponent just suggested. One particular doctor sets the competitive goal of helping more patients than the other doctors. Seeing as there are more patients than doctors, in order to achieve that goal the doctor must cooperate with more patients, more staff, more marketing channels, etc. And seeing as a doctor will likely see the same patients et al over and over that doctor must cooperate each time. Where there is only one instance of competition for each of the other doctors that doctor is competing against, there are many and repeated instances of cooperation between that doctor and the numerous patients et al if that doctor wishes to achieve his goal. __ If I have the goal of "politely shaking Paul Smith's hand the next time I see him", I must have his cooperation. If I didn't have his cooperation the exchange would not likely be polite, and could get downright violent if he tried to compete against me in my goal. Yes this is a humorous example using a simple goal. It also demonstrates that cooperation will help me achieve my goal while competition will hinder me achieving my goal. The topic does not address the quality of the goal or the reason it was set in the first place. Quality of the goal and reason for the goal are irrelevant to the topic. Only importance in achieving the goal should be addressed. In the first round I asserted that competition can be a good motivator (A point to which my opponent's entire case is almost built around), but that motivation and achievement are not the same thing. ___ Please keep in mind that my opponent and I are currently debating: "Cooperation is more important than competition in achieving a goal". Please also note that nowhere in this topic are the terms "motivation" or "success" or "setting a goal" or "effort" or "encouragement" or "preference" or "merit" or "opponent" or "origin" or any of the other elements that my opponent seems to be trying to inject into the topic such as capitalism vs. communism. My opponent makes these attempts the clearest in the opening and final statements of the previous round. "If there were no competition for him, he would not work hard enough to achieve his goal BECAUSE there AREN'T ENOUGH MOTIVATIONS for him to give enough effort into his goal." & "Competition is more important than cooperation in order to achieve someone's goal because it is the MOTIVATION which helps people to achieve their goals and even SET THEIR START LINES." Motivation is not achievement. There are lots of people out there who are motivated to become millionaires but there are many fewer who have actually achieved it or will achieve it. If they want to turn that desire into a reality and actually ACHIEVE becoming a millionaire, they will have to cooperate with many people in order to achieve that goal. Origin of a goal is not part of the topic. In fact "...in achieving a goal." directly implies that "a goal" already exists. If my opponent wishes to win this debate then my opponent should show that competition is more important than cooperation in achieving a goal. ___ My opponent is expecting too much cooperation from me. In the first round I attempted to cooperate by restating what I thought my opponent had intended the debate to be, even though it was to my disadvantage. I suggested a change: From "People CAN achieve goals by cooperation rather than competition." (in which case I would only have to prove it is possible) To "Cooperation is MORE IMPORTANT than competition in achieving a goal." I'm sorry, but that is as generous as I am going to be with my opponent when it comes to cooperating on the topic, and if my opponent does not openly accept the topic of "Cooperation is more important than competition to achieving a goal." at the beginning of the next round, I will stop attempting to cooperate with my opponent and argue the topic that my opponent originally stated (People can achieve goals by cooperation rather than competition).