Economics Questions

Re: Affirmative action

Caley McKibbin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:48:38 GMT

By the way, I'm a minority, and I use affirmative action whenever possible.

Spanish is an official language in Portland, judging by the looks of it. It's like in Canada where everything is in both English and French, despite few people speaking French outside of Quebec.

Re: Affirmative action

Libertyandlife — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:45:00 GMT

^Yes opposition. And yet the democrats are on one side and the republicans on another.

Re: Affirmative action

BrianAnderson — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:25:18 GMT

Yeah I meant ´were´. My English grammar really sucks.

My apologies, then. I thought you meant something else.

Re: Affirmative action

BramElias — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:23:56 GMT

Yeah I meant ´were´. My English grammar really sucks.

Re: Affirmative action

BrianAnderson — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:22:58 GMT

Outsourcing is the white affirmitive action.

You mean the opposition to outsourcing?

Re: Affirmative action

Libertyandlife — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:16:13 GMT

The arguments for affirmitive action and people complaining about the exportation of jobs seem to be very similar. No? Outsourcing is the white affirmitive action.

Re: Affirmative action

BrianAnderson — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:15:16 GMT

This is what I love about immigrants, they don't need no affirmitive action, they climb that economic ladder with no bitching and throw everyone else in the dust.

Haha, that is really true. I have to say that, out of all the illegal immigrants I've seen, they work harder than most everyone I know.

Re: Affirmative action

Libertyandlife — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:13:32 GMT

This is what I love about immigrants, they don't need no affirmitive action, they climb that economic ladder with no bitching and throw everyone else in the dust, meanwhile most of the welfare recipients are "native" folks.

Re: Affirmative action

BrianAnderson — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:49:31 GMT

Well even if a lot capitalists would be racists, eventually other greedy capitalists start to hire minorities because they are cheeper due to supply and demand.

You mean to say "even if a lot of capitalists were racist". No one will become racist due to affirmative action being taken down. The same people who are racist now would be racist then. In fact, fewer people may be racist if affirmative action were to be taken down. When many people hear that they're force to hire minorities, they get mad at minorities instead of the government. It promotes racism.

Racism in job applicants can't last to long, because the incentive for cheaper labor would prefent it.

That's only assuming two things. (1) That every single person has equal job skills. I'll only hire someone for cheaper if I know their relative production level is equal to that of my current employees. Otherwise there's no point. (2) That non-minorities always cost more to hire than minorities. It's the minimum wage laws, not the race of the employee. When I was in high school, a few of my neighbors had their landscaping done by illegal immigrants, so I asked them how much they charged, and it was outrageous. Then I told the neighbors I'd do it for like half price, and I made a ton of a money.

EDIT: The character is a bit racist himself, but he does put it well during the conversation. Great movie, too.

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Re: Affirmative action

DanielMuff — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:01:18 GMT

Jonathan, you should have told them that you have an American citizenship/residentship and that you speak a language derived from Latin.

Re: Affirmative action

BramElias — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:56:54 GMT

Well even if a lot capitalists would be racists, eventually other greedy capitalists start to hire minorities

because they are cheeper due to supply and demand. Racism in job applicants can't last to long, because

the incentive for cheaper labor would prefent it.

Re: Affirmative action

Jonathan M. F. Catalán — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:56:43 GMT

Affirmative action seems like an implicitely racist piece of legislation. We must help teenagers who belong to minority groups go to college, because otherwise they would be uncompetitive in an equal environment with whites. Why can't minorities compete on the same level? By the way, I'm a minority, and I use affirmative action whenever possible. ;) Although, San Diego State University, I think caught the loophole. I am, according to my birth certificate, hispanic, but San Diego State University asked me to clarify between Latin American and Spanish.

Re: Affirmative action

DanielMuff — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:49:27 GMT

What's wrong with not being colorblind? To paraphrase Walter Williams: "I chose to marry a young black woman."

Re: Affirmative action

Sieben — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:55:27 GMT

I don't think its a good idea to argue the history of AA. At best you can get opponents to concede that it needs to be "reformed" because in principle, it is possible that it can help minorities become more equal.

You need to approach it as just another redistribution of wealth argument. It isn't categorically different.

Re: Affirmative action

AdrianHealey — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:51:05 GMT

So did Richard Epstein. Forgot the book title, though.