rat race 
noun informal
A way of life in which people are caught up in a fiercely competitive struggle for wealth or power: they quit the rat race in order to live a simple life the rat race of international sport...
- ‘I think it's the way we all are,’ says Kentis, who admits that he can get caught up in the rat race of living in New York.
- To be caught up in the rat race seems to mean that a compromise has to be made.
- Anyone who suggests I quit the rat race to open a jam making cooperative in rural Borneo can stop right now!