Race to the bottom

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Race to the bottom is a socio-economic concept describing a scenario in which individuals or companies compete in a manner that incrementally reduces the utility of a product or service in response to perverse incentives. For example, in the 1970s, car manufacturers in the United States competed to create safer cars primarily by increasing car weight, spurring their competitors to respond by manufacturing even-heavier cars. Over years, this resulted in much larger, fuel-inefficient vehicles with no improved safety.^{[citation needed]} This phenomenon is in contrast with traditional competition (economics), which tends to improve goods and services.