Adults compete to survive in the buisness world, in school, in their families, etc., and often this competition results in loss, which is also necessary in a society. I find it interesting to imagine a society such as Mike's, where competition is only apparent in nymphs or babies, but adults never compete. Only the strongest and fittest would be able to become adults, in fact, Mike states that nine out of ten nymphs die. I believe that at first glance, this sounds intriging, but a closer examination would reveal dissatisfaction. While it is easy to think that competition is evil and that we would rather live in a society such as Mike's, I believe that competition is necessary.
Competition drives a person to achieve more and strive to do their best.
These characteristics are then passed down to offspring, which further their ancestor's drive to succeed. I also think that our lives would be unfulfilled without this drive to succeed, and we would find that we would be more apt to become lazy. Mike's statement that weeding and competiting is necessary for a race seems to have validity both in our world today and the world that is spoken of in the book. Yet, I grok that we would be dissatisfied with a world where competition only existed among babies, even if at first glance it seems to be satisfying. Most of the time I tend to shy away from reading too much into things.