brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (06/21/85)
One point about AA that I've never understood. It, and so many other laws seem to break society up into two classes, "employer" and "employed". It very much turns things into an "us" vs. "them" deal. When you trade money for services, it should be like all other fair trades - both sides win. But employment laws turn this into a class vs. class situation where one person has the "right" to a job and the other a "duty" to provide it. The laws never go the other way. Can anybody imagine a law that demanded more white people go work for companies owned by blacks? Some professions are employee's market (for example, programming) as opposed to automaking, where it's an employer's market. How about a law that said, "It seems that white men choose to work at companies owned by other white men. We insist you go quit your job and work for companies owned by black woman since you aren't doing it in numbers proportional to their percentage of the population." How about, "You aren't buying enough cars built by black people. We'll put a tax on white-built cars." (Sounds a lot like, "You aren't buying enough cars built by Americans, we'll put a tax on cars built by Japs." which is even more frightening because it's true.) "Not enough novels written by women are bought. We'll fine anybody who doesn't buy 51% female books and 49% male books. And let's also fine the publishers who don't sign 51% female authors and 49% male authors." As somebody who worked his way up from the employee class to the employer class, I have always been insulted by other people's attempts to control how I spend my money or sell my services. People should instead take the pro-choice view, and leave such decisions to the individuals. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) (06/24/85)
. . . > > As somebody who worked his way up from the employee class to the employer > class, I have always been insulted by other people's attempts to control > how I spend my money or sell my services. People should instead take As long as how you spend/sell doesn't affect anyone then you're right; as soon as the way you or a class of people behave acts to lower the quality (or potential quality) of life for someone else (or some class) then they do have a right to attempt to control it. > the pro-choice view, and leave such decisions to the individuals. > -- > Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473