Talk:Race to the bottom/Archives/2016

This article is packed full of untruths

A race to the bottom is simply a race to the worst possible situation.

This article make huge assumptions as to what makes a worst possible situation. LeapUK (talk) 06:40, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Major POV problem

This article needs to be rewritten so that it isn't obviously railing against the so-called "race to the bottom". Salvor Hardin 09:44, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

But I think the phrase inherently refers to the negative aspects of deregulation, and the perverse nature of certain incentives to deregulate. Insofar as deregulation is good, it really wouldn't be called a "race to the bottom." Daniel J. Hakimi (talk) 17:29, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

Isn't "race to the bottom" a far more general term?

Doesn't the term cover any competition that produces emergent negative beaviour??

e.g. 1 the tendancy to for people to buy bigger and bigger cars (to compete on safety and to compete on style) is called a "race to the bottom" in the book the Rebel Sell.

e.g. 2 The same book describes more and more graphic body-piercings by each successive generation of teens similarly. Yesterdays rebellion is nothing today so, to compete, you have to go to the next level.

e.g. 3 Arms races are an example of a race to the bottom (and arms treaties are used to check this natural tendancy).

e.g. 4 Even tree heights in a forest are an example. If the trees could only agree to all grow less tall they'd all get the same amount of sunlight. Sadly wasted tree-trunk-growing effort is the order of the day. This emergent wasteful behaviour is also a race to the bottom. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.200.11 (talk) 17:47, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Definitely. Saying that it refers just to competition between governments is way too limiting. The entire article needs a serious rewrite for this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.99.65.10 (talk) 15:39, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, this article claims a narrowness of definition which is not reflective of wider use. When people speak of a race to the bottom they mean a dive towards the worst that mankind is capable of rather than climbing to the best. LeapUK (talk) 11:42, 19 July 2016 (UTC)

I was really confused about this too. This article explains what is a classic example of a race to the bottom, but is not the definition. That said, I think the definition is a game, very close to, but not identical to, the prisoner's dilemma. Daniel J. Hakimi (talk) 17:31, 11 September 2016 (UTC)