a race to the bottom happens when countries, companies, or even workers compete by lowering standards instead of improving quality.
one country cuts taxes and labor protections to attract businesses, another goes even lower, then another follows.
everyone is trying to become more competitive, but the end result can be worse wages, weaker protections, lower taxes, or more environmental damage.
basically, competition where winning can make everyone worse off.
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race to the bottom gets a lot easier to see with real examples.
fast fashion is one. global brands keep looking for cheaper production, and bangladesh became a major manufacturing hub partly because of extremely low wages and weak labor protections. academics have literally used its garment industry as an example of the race to the bottom.
another version happened with amazon’s hq2. cities basically competed to win amazon by offering huge incentives. new york offered a package worth nearly $3 billion and virginia offered up to $773 million. the new york deal eventually collapsed after political backlash.
different industries, same weird dynamic: everyone competes to offer more by asking for less in return.
