Why do many pro-capitalists embrace anti-discrimination laws?

Question

Not sharing my opinion on this... Just asking...

Isn't the primary goal of capitalism to maximize profit opportunity? Yes.

Answer 1

The primary goal of capitalism, as a system, is to maximize economic growth. The concept is that, as Adam Smith put it, the "invisible hand" of profit, driven by every company and individual attempting to increase his own personal profit, lifts the economic level of society as a whole.

Why, then, would capitalists be in favor of anti-discrimination laws? The answer is really pretty simple. The system works best when all parties are on a level playing field. If there are no laws against discrimination, then a specific company can obtain a *short term* benefit, under some circumstances, by discriminating, unless ALL their competitors also discriminate. When that happens, no-one gets the advantage of it, but everyone gets the extra cost of enforcing the discrimination - which is bad for each company individually, plus the economy as a whole.

The most common illustration of this is the "Boston Trolley Car" story.

In Boston, in the early 19th century, 'most' of the wealthy businessmen were anti-slavery, and pro "***** rights". Despite this fact, all the trolley car companies - owned by these same people - in Boston ran segregated trolleys. Why? Because the typical blue-collar Bostonian trolley rider didn't want to have to share a car with blacks. Any company, therefore, than did away with segregated cars would find that their riders - or some of them anyway - would stop riding, and go to the competition. Every company was thus paying all the costs involved in operating black sections and white sections, without getting any competitive edge from it. The owners approached the city council, and persuaded them to pass a city ordinance forbidding segregated cars. Thus each car company got the advantage of doing away with a dual system, without the competitive hit of having competitors who hadn't done so.

And THAT is why capitalists like anti-discrimination laws - it saves you the cost of operating a discriminatory system (which is ALWAYS more expensive than an open system) without subjecting you to competitive pressures from people who ARE running a discriminatory system.

EDIT.... that's funny...... Yahoo apparently doesn't like the word used in the 19th century as a polite term for blacks, as an alternative to "the N word".

Richard

Answer 2

It seems to me that justice and fairness should come before the profit motive.