Full Idea
As each entrepreneur strives to increase his profit by cutting his price slightly, hoping thereby to seize a larger portion of the total market, the market price of his commodity falls steadily, and everyone experiences a decline in profit
Gist of Idea
If you competitively cut prices to gain advantage, you push all the prices down
Source
Robert Paul Wolff (In Defence of Anarchism [1970], 3.1)
A Reaction
This is the logic which leads to the universal tacit cartel of keeping prices higher than they need to be. A complex instance of the Prisoner's Dilemma. How come all the plumbers in an area charge roughly the same rate?
Book Reference
Wolff,Robert Paul: 'In Defence of Anarchism' [Harper Torchbooks 1976], p.75