Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cybvax0.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!qantel!dual!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: (Re:**N) Affirmative Action Message-ID: <598@cybvax0.UUCP> Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 17:23:39 EDT Article-I.D.: cybvax0.598 Posted: Fri Jul 5 17:23:39 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 06:41:23 EDT References: <259@kontron.UUCP> <7800346@inmet.UUCP> Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA Lines: 38 In article <7800346@inmet.UUCP> nrh@inmet.UUCP writes: > > Yes. Unquestionably. For details, see Walter Williams, "The > State Against Blacks". In general, acting within the confines > of a prejudice not in harmony with reality tends to make you > make mistakes (you fail to hire the best person for the job because > he's black, you fail to rent to the most desirable tenant because > she's not Christian (or whatever). A competitor, not bound by these > rules can take advantage of the situation by attracting people who > you refuse to deal with. Because you have lowered your demand > for these people (by refusing to deal with them) he may pay less, or > charge more (he faces less competition for their services or tennancy), and > he gets a better employee/tenant than you do. In short, you labor under > a disadvantage because you choose to be less free than your competitors. I grow very tired of these ignorant, ivory-tower economic predictions. If you are so certain that there is a financial benefit to not discriminating, go into a bigoted white neighborhood, build housing, announce (by word or deed) that you're a "nigger lover" (they'll call you that), and that you intend to outcompete them because of this pragmatism. You will very quickly see many of the mechanisms by which discrimination is reinforced despite market pressures. The fact is that there are many forms of coercion besides market pressures, and postulating a libertarian society without coercion is as realistic as wishing away crime in our own society. Vandalism, arson, assault, and a variety of other hate (think Ku Klux Klan) are coercive realities that must be dealt with. The fact is that coercion must be overcome by greater coercion. Economic coercion of the sort you suggest is far too mild to defeat pervasive informal and amateur coercion for discrimination. Several hundred years of discrimination show this clearly. 30 years of stronger government coercion has produced sudden and dramatic lifting of barriers, as a variety of history and occupational statistics show. -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh