Our track-and-trace system will be “world-beating”. The development of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine is “months ahead” of its competitors around the world.

This is how politicians and the media have been talking about our lines of defence against the coronavirus pandemic. But when facing up to a global problem that connects us all, why is competition the only language we have to talk about it?

How has competition come to define our economy and society? What do we miss out on when we focus on competition? And is there a way out?

Ayeisha is joined by Michelle Meagher, author of new book, Competition is Killing Us and Grace Blakeley, staff writer at Tribune and author of upcoming book, The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic will Change Capitalism.

Grab a copy of Michelle's book https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315/315772/competition-is-killing-us/9780241423011.htmlGrace's book is out on the 27th October https://www.versobooks.com/books/3723-the-corona-crash

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Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone.

Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license.

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The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org