CDR: Discrimination

[Steven Furlong]

Tim May wrote:
> By the way, market forces are often so powerful in ending
> discrimination that it is _states_ (governments) which seek to
> maintain discrimination.

<<south africa and germany>>

You can throw the post-Civil War American south into the mix, too. Some
Southern politicians were distressed that shop-keepers were dealing with
negroes, and passed laws to prevent that. This resulted in the first
section of the 14th Amendment (for our non-American readers, the key
point is all American citizens get equal protection of the laws). It
wasn't individual discrimination that was a serious problem; as Tim
says, self-interest drove at least _some_ merchants to ignore any
prejudices they might harbor. It was state-mandated discrimination that
caused the federal remedy.

> Markets aren't "perfect" (not that such a thing has a lot of
> meaning), but greed and self-interest usually results in less
> discrimination than when governments are the ones enforcing the laws.
> Enlightened self-interest usually means that merchants deal with
> _everyone_. It takes a very powerful reason for shunning or expulsion
> to occur.


-- 
Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere     Have GNU, will travel
   518-374-4720     sfurlong at acmenet.net