Comments on: The Market Against Race and Sex Discrimination

By: HL

HL — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:24:54 +0000

Scott V - they do. Shopping for quality legal representation is extremely difficult. Even the most sophisticated consumer of legal services has a terribly hard time quantifying marginal benefit to this or that action and, especially, this or that scribe or litigator. Add to this that "even a blid pig will find a truffle now and then," and you have a market that is perfect for race-based discrimination. Prior to the 1970's it was discrimination in favor of melanin disadvantaged people; after the 1970's it was discrimination against the melanin deprived. The ABA works tirelessly to assure that every law school in this country admits enough challenged applicants to ensure at least 10% of each graduating class is completely and totally incapable of performing at the bare-minimum level of competence. Even governmental employers will admit, in hushed voices after many drinks, that the sight of melanin is almost a guaranty this attorney will be trouble. I will say this, though, now is truly a glorious time to be a "minority." If you are even remotely talented and can look good in a suit, possibilities are unlimited.

By: Scott V

Scott V — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:27:41 +0000

Please forgive me for being rude and making a joke, but a lesbian-left-handed-eskimo-midgit-albino/lawyer would make soooooo much money!

By: Mitchell Powell

Mitchell Powell — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:23:39 +0000

Let the market be as politically correct as it likes, and let the market sort out those who are racist and those who hire the best value in labor regardless. I suspect in this case the economic results will vindicate the airliners.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:25:37 +0000

Actually, Floyd, all the Jewish people who were not allowed to join white firms banded together to start their own small firms, which have now become the big firms dominating the market. These things take time. Women and minorities make up a very small percentage of lawyers who have been in practice long enough to have developed prowess in both lawyering and law firm management, because it wasn’t a viable career option (especially for women) two or three decades ago. Huebert was trying to highlight that companies are finally starting to wise up and see what kind of talent is out there, and there is a lot of it. Unfortunately, the legal industry still relies on outdated models and artificial barriers to entry, otherwise this would not have taken so long. So your insinuation that whites are somehow “better” at lawyering is misplaced and unwelcome in a libertarian forum.

By: Floyd Looney

Floyd Looney — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:19:00 +0000

Odd that there are no efficient small white-owned firms. Maybe because they were so good at what they do they became large firms?

By: Learner

Learner — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:16:46 +0000

There’s something about the semantics of “a group of big corporations [...] has just agreed to spend $30 million to hire minority” that reminds me of affirmative action. And why have they decided to “collectively” invest in this initiative (see original article)?

By: J.H. Huebert

J.H. Huebert — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:42:30 +0000

I agree. But if it were only about PR, one could argue that they only need the PR because of a government-encouraged atmosphere of political correctness. (I don’t know how much merit that argument would have, but one could make it.)

In this case, though, we can see how they have an incentive that is clearly about the bottom line. And I’m sure they appreciate the PR, too — which probably explains why they would set aside the money specifically for women and minorities instead of just shopping on price in some other manner. Nothing wrong with that.

By: Kerem Tibuk

Kerem Tibuk — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:33:24 +0000

“But as this National Law Journal article points out (free registration required), businesses aren’t doing this out of altruism or even just for the PR value.”

PR is a legitimate market function so even if they did it just for PR reasons it would still show the power of thefree market.

By: Huebert

Huebert — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:15:47 +0000

Before someone else makes the comment, I should acknowledge that many of these big corporations are not purely “market” institutions, and neither are law firms, which are part of the state-imposed legal cartel. But such organizations can still be used, as here, to illustrate some ways in which the market works.