You couldn't ask for a much better explanation of what's wrong with US culture. (Nearly all other societies are less competitive, and some are almost completely cooperative.) Kohn doesn't have much to say about how we can overhaul our culture, other than by substituting non-competitive games for what we currently teach children. He does suggest that our reduction in racial and gender discrimination shows we can also end competitive indoctrination. More immediately, I suggest that each of us look for ways to motivate our subordinates cooperatively rather than competitively.
Kohn doesn't address two questions that interest me: 1) Will competitive societies (and their sports-trained armies) tend to absorb non-competitive neighbors? Darwin saw competition everywhere in nature, but there are many species where cooperative behaviors are common and may have "won out" over millions of years. Will human greed, aggression, and [Western? male?] dominance structures allow cooperative societies room to develop? 2) Do competitive companies and societies set more goals, and more ambitious goals, than cooperative groups, outweighing the inherently low efficiency of competitive behavior? This would explain why competitive societies such as the US have progressed faster than non-competitive ones such as China. Something to think about. Meanwhile, I don't believe I can convince my daughter to drop out of competitive sports -- or even to read the book, which is rather dense and scholarly.
Kohn defines competition as "mutually exclusive goal attainment" - a situation where someone wins only if others lose. This type of structure, by its very nature, erodes human relationships. Kohn is not asking us to do away with incentives or tests - he is asking us to stop using them to determine a "winner." Kohn shows that people in a cooperative setting will attain a goal with more efficiency and creativity than people in a competitive setting.
But what about market competitiveness and the benefits for consumers? Yes, but think of the goal, the driving force behind this: making more money than the next company. That means polluting the environment (cleaner is usually more expensive), exploiting workers (the so-called minimum wage is not enough for anyone to live on), and even committing fraud. As Kohn explains, the nature of competition means that the goal becomes the most important thing. Everything else is merely an obstacle; everyone else an enemy.
Sometimes I wish I hadn't read this book - it has thrown my view of the world upside down and made me question my work at a management consulting company. But I realize this is just the initial discomfort one feels after walking out of a dark room into the sunlight. The glare may hurt at first, but after your eyes have adjusted, you appreciate the new world you see around you. This book may hurt at first, but give it a chance and see if it doesn't change your world and your relationships for the better.