Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!bstempleton From: bstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: can.politics,net.women Subject: Re: Discrimination against x Message-ID: <15520@watmath.UUCP> Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 15:05:25 EDT Article-I.D.: watmath.15520 Posted: Mon Jul 1 15:05:25 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 2-Jul-85 04:51:48 EDT References: <893@mnetor.UUCP> <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP> Reply-To: bstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton) Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 33 Xref: watmath can.politics:582 net.women:6187 Summary: While one might claim that it is an important social gools to ensure that "black female plumbers are paid as much as white male plumbers", it is also a very important social goal that superior plumbers are paid more than inferior plumbers. The same is true for all jobs. If you interfere with the above process, you can easily destroy most of the incentives in society. The problem with AA laws is that they insist the government decide who is a superior plumber, programmer or president of IBM. You can't get around this. If somebody criticizes a hiring decision as sexist, and the employer responds that they think those chose the superior applicant, the government is required to set down standards to decide who is the superior applicant. Thank you, but no damn way I want this to happen. No bureaucrat in Ottawa has the right or competence to tell me what I'm worth. Or anybody else for that matter. ------------------------ On another hiring note - nepotism. While it doesn't seem fair that employers often hire people within families or people they know, you must understand that, particularly in a small company, the choice of an employee can be fundamental to the success of the company. One wrong move and your company can fail. Thus many companies chose to go with somebody they KNOW, even in full realization that there are better people out there that they don't know. Can you blame them? Every company wants to make the best decision, but if they can't do so safely they will stick with what they know. In the long run, the companies who take the risk will do better, but more of them will go bankrupt, too. That's corporate Darwinism, I guess! -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont. (519) 884-7473