Should We Be Allowed To Discriminate?

» JS_Mill - A few points

1) Do you really think that black people are an entirely comparable and morally equivalent group to "Nazi skinheads" and deserving of exactly the same protection under the law?

2) To say that segregation was entirely the product of "Jim Crow" laws in the American South is entirely wrong. There were no laws against mixed-race restaurants or buses, or laws mandating the provision of whites-only facilities. These were provided by the free market in response to a demand for them by Southern whites. If a bus company or restaurant had started to de-segregate on its own, then it would have lost its (wealthy) white customers and become (effectively) a black-only business. It's easy to see how there are multiple equilibria at work here. You're thinking of South Africa and apartheid.

3) Albert Einstein was not directly involved in the development of the atom bomb, any more than Michael Faraday was involved in building the Hoover Dam. However, a number of other exiled Jewish physicists were.

If you're going to look at racism from an economic point of view, you really ought to consider at the very least the writings of Glenn Loury. Even paleo-conservatives like Becker wouldn't advance the "competition drives out discrimination" line without some qualification. More generally, you might want to consider getting a book on game theory to add some sophistication to the "Economics of Human Behaviour" here -- so far, those articles which use economics at all seem to be stuck in fairly crude marginal analysis. I'll see if I can find a good one, although Mr Gailmard will know heaps more than me.

jsm

-- posted by JS_Mill

Permalink Print Discussion Join the latest discussions