Competition

I think the competition is only good for the companies not so much the consumer. The companies are trying to make the most money. Which generally means selling the consumer crap. So rather than compete to do something better, it's really a competition do do something worse. =/

So I suppose 'competition' has become something a little bit counter productive. Though I suppose it also depends where it's applied. But still even in a competitive area like technology, advancements are made and yet the ideal is still who can make a cheaper product that sells well....over the idea of having technology advance and sell quality.

And to use your soap comparison, I think that's got something to do more with tricking the consumer into thinking they have something better than what it really is. XD People are drawn to, pretty packages and neat looking things. Like I've seen those little pouches for dishwashers. They look super cool...and supposedly they clean your dishes better. They look much cooler than a bottle of liquid, which would last you a lot longer, but lookit how pretty those pouches of powder and blue liquid look.

Product design is all about visually appealing to the consumer to get them to buy the item regardless of what the item actually does. Kinda like bottled anything, water, soda, etc. If the bottle looks really interesting there's a good handful of people (I tend to be one of these people) who will pay a higher price because it looked interesting. Which is all another situation of paying for nothing. So that's kinda of where the appeal of 'competition' comes from in the companies eyes. But as a consumer yeah your'e generally not benefiting. XD As far as I can tell.