Sometimes a situation or problem is just going to get worse; it might easily do downhill, which is why there is a perfect English expression to describe this.
We describe a situation that is getting worse and will end in disaster unless it is stopped as a slippery slope.
For example, James was on a slippery slope to getting the sack when he started missing important meeting with clients.
You are on a slippery slope once you start lying about your age!
The company started down the slippery slope of believing that they knew better than the customer.
Slippery slope: a course or situation regarded as easily or inevitably leading to further decline or deterioration
For example: When the mother found an empty bottle of whiskey in her teenager's bedroom, she warned him he was on a slippery slope toward a life of indigence and destitution.
There is also the slippery slope argument. The slippery slope argument is used in discussing euthanasia and similar topics. This argument says that if we allow something relatively harmless today, we may start a trend that results in something currently unthinkable becoming accepted. For example, people worry that if voluntary euthanasia were to be made legal, it would not be long before involuntary euthanasia would start to happen.
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