| Sumario: | This paper is concerned with some aspects of the formidable problem of defining conditions under which the action of competitive forces may be both feasible and effective in an industrial age of gigantic units and massively-applied science and all the difficulties they bring with them. By way of normative criteria, the efficiency of large scale production and the progress stemming from applied science, including varied products to choose from and favorable conditions for choosing. All this is without losing the essential protections of competitive forces; but these essentials obviously differ from "pure and perfect" competitive equilibrium, thus challenging us to define desirable departures, inherent in competitive progress. After all, "perfection" is not a relevant standard by which to judge an endless dynamic process of creation and erosion of temporary innovational positions and competitive differential advantages. One of the chief things that goes with competitive progress is diversity, of many sorts, in methods and scale of production and in resulting costs and cost-price relationships.
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