west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West) (06/25/85)
I'm pulling out a very small part of an article in a long series of Affirmative Action articles. Obviously, I'm pulling out a point that interests me, and, I hope, others. In article <259@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes: > However, I can't come up with a way to eliminate discrimination > anymore than I can eliminate gravity --- it seems at times to be > built in to the human species, and the best we can hope for is to > allow the free market to make discrimination costly. I'm going to ignore the issue of whether we have anything like a "free market" in this country, and assume that for practical purposes, we do. (I think there is an issue about what "free market" means when some goods or services or laborers are discriminated against on the basis of their national origin or sex. And yes, that sentence has potential for humor.) I'm curious about Clayton's last phrase. I'd like to hear people's suggestions as to: 1) Does the "free market" presently work to make discrimination costly [i.e., costly enough to matter]? 2) What means could/should be taken to encourage this behavior of the marketplace? 3) What sorts of trade-offs of rights/privileges do/will the answers to 1) and 2) have? Shall I stress that I want people on all sides of AA to think about this, and not just answer off the tops of their heads? No, that seems unnecessary now... -- Larry West Institute for Cognitive Science (USA+619-)452-6220 UC San Diego (mailcode C-015) [x6220] ARPA: <west@nprdc.ARPA> La Jolla, CA 92093 U.S.A. UUCP: {ucbvax,sdcrdcf,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west OR ulysses!sdcsla!west