I believe economists call this type of zero sum competition an 'arms race'. It occurs in many situation where there is a scarcity of positional goods (e.g., living in the centre of town, being top of the class, getting the top job, having the biggest yacht, being the most famous celebrity). In some cases (educational attainment) the externalities are positive (everyone gets smarter). In others (acquiring status or accumulating wealth), the effect can be very wasteful. Social and psychological norms such as feelings of envy, or a distate for people who show off or "over-achieve" evolves to control for the effect, but that's often a very imperfect mechanism.