Byrne, that would involve very rapidly diminishing social returns, since if the fitness of grant proposals is normally distributed the required population size goes as the exponential of the square of the number of standard deviations required for the cream of the crop.

Zubon, Caplan's example of collusion in the classroom is a good illustration of the phenomena I intended to single out by their absence, as it were. Grading on a curve only makes competition zero-sum if you care nothing except grades, just as playing Go is zero-sum only if you care about nothing except winning. But, as a matter of real life, if the students all study harder, they all know more economics. A farmer who farms twice as hard may drive prices down for other farmers, but in the end there's twice as much food. There is competition, but not socially zero-sum competition. On the other hand, when corporate bureaucrats work twice as hard to impress their bosses, their corporation doesn't get double the income. It may even get less. This is the distinction I was trying to point out.