It may seem irrational that capitalists can’t work together to solve their common problems without all the drama and crisis. They can cooperate to a certain degree, and they do, but the relationship between them is essentially antagonistic. Competition is the mechanism at the heart of capital’s laws of motion, ruling every decision they make. When forced to deflect immediate catastrophes, they do manage to act collectively through the political representatives of the particular sections of their class (Republicans and Democrats), and through the state as a whole, which represents their class as a whole. (A recent example is their raising the debt ceiling barely in time to remain solvent another day).