Why is competition necessary in a free-market system?

Competition is necessary for a free-market system to keep the economy from crashing into nothing but monopolies. Without the healthy competition of many companies offering the same goods/services, the most prominent companies would monopolize the market; Meaning that if the company chose to price a singular pair of workboots at upwards of two-thousand dollars, then the customer would have to somehow pay that amount instead of being able to check another store for a pair of workboots that are more reasonably priced for their budget.

i believe the answer would be 1.

there has only been 12 presidents. the 12th president is/was moon jae-in