Race to the Bottom
Etymology
The phrase is commonly traced to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who in Liggett Co. v. Lee (1933) warned of a “race … not of diligence but of laxity” among states loosening corporate law. The exact wording “race to the bottom” is a later popularization of his idea rather than his literal phrase.
noun phrase · /RAYS tuh thuh BOT-um/
A competitive spiral in which rivals keep cutting standards — wages, taxes, safety, quality — to undercut each other, harming everyone.
What it names
A handle for destructive competition that runs the wrong way — useful for tax havens, sweatshop labor, or content platforms all chasing the lowest common denominator.
Example
When every streaming service slashes prices below cost, it is a race to the bottom that only the deepest pockets survive.
Related idea
It inverts a healthy market’s upward comparative advantage: instead of competing to be better, players compete to be cheaper by shedding standards, so the shared result deteriorates.