Richard Dawkins, a noted explainer of nature, tells us, “Tree trunks are standing monuments to futile competition.” In his book The Greatest Show on Earth, he makes the necessary distinction between a “designed economy” and an “evolutionary economy,” using the fable of the “Forest of Friendship.” “In a…mature forest,” he writes, “the canopy can be thought of as an aerial meadow…raised on stilts…gathering solar energy…but a substantial portion of the energy is ‘wasted’ by being fed straight into the stilts, which do nothing more useful than loft the ‘meadow’ high in the air, where it picks up the same harvest…as it would—at far lower cost—if it were laid flat on the ground.” No tree can afford to not compete in the height competition. However, if somehow the trees could arrange a pact of friendship to limit their heights, each tree, and the forest as a whole, could save energy. This is obviously not possible for trees, but if it were, Dawkins concludes, the “Forest of Friendship [would be] more efficient as a forest.” - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/10/23/what-competition-in-nature-should-teach-us-about-markets-should-we-be-as-dumb-as-trees/#pq=Ub6VJh