The phrase “Race to the Bottom” is a semantic slight of hand used to attempt to color your opinion prior to even looking at the situation over which the phrase is used. The phrase “Race to the bottom” was coined by US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in the 1933 case, Ligget Co. v. Lee (288 U.S. 517, 558-559). Brandeis didn’t fail to see that competition helps to increase liberty, Brandeis merely believed that this was a bad thing. Coining a phrase like “race to the bottom” is a wonderful technique if you wish to stifle dissent and put other views immediately on the defensive.

In fact, the often disparaged “race to the bottom” is in fact a race to freedom. The “race to the bottom” is a race to give each individual person the liberty to control their own lives in the manner they see fit without interference from others. Only those who are trying to control someone else via the state view you as being unable to make your own intelligent decisions about what is best for you. Using the term “race to the bottom” is a bit of intellectual dishonest that the authors use to attempt to subconsciously alter your opinion based on emotion rather than fact.

So, when you hear the phrase “race to the bottom” read a little closer and see who is advocating more individual choice and who is advocating more regulation and government control. Protect your rights.

The fact that Brandeis, a Supreme Court Justice, coined the phrase is disgraceful in someone who is supposed to weigh law, not emotion. In a Supreme Court Justice sworn to uphold the Constutition of the United States it is even worse.

Christian H F Riley