In addition to being harmful towards quality of life

In addition to being harmful towards quality of life, the forced equality and lack of competition is a detriment to the functioning of society. Due to everyone being equal, no one is any better at their job than anyone else. While watching ballerinas on television, George remarks that “they weren’t really very good-no better than anyone else would have been, anyway” (Vonnegut Jr. 2). After Harrison escapes prison, a news announcer comes on to read an emergency bulletin. “It wasn’t clear at first as to what the bulletin was about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment’ (Vonnegut Jr. 5). If the announcement had been more urgent, an unclear announcer could have disastrous consequences. The situation of the ballerinas and the announcer being indicative of the rest of society, it can be interpolated that everyone is less than mediocre at their profession as nobody can be better at something than anyone else. This could lead to an ineffective society, where no one has a specialized skill set to perform complex tasks.
Those who oppose competition declare that it preys upon certain groups, like the poor (Stucke 175). However, competition’s benefits outweigh these effects as it encourages “more choices and variety, more innovation, and greater efficiency and productivity” (Stucke 166).