tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152270.post109451074793808285..comments2024-03-26T12:23:35.307-05:00Comments on The Buck Stops Here: Irrational DiscriminationStuart Buckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731724396708879386noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152270.post-1094527774344322172004-09-06T22:29:00.000-05:002004-09-06T22:29:00.000-05:00Part of it may be the consumer market involved as ...Part of it may be the consumer market involved as well. In the same way that, even though animal testing is probably the cheapest way to test for intrinsic safeness of a chemical product, consumers sometimes concertedly reject that product because it is connected to animal testing, it may be that consumers in the South drove those hiring patterns, because extrinsic social values like not having Blacks involved in producing your goods were valued sufficiently to overcome pricing and intrinsic quality disadvantages from not using the best available labour. I think there were odd hygiene taboos or something like that with segregationist Whites in the South, weren't there--blacks as "unclean"? Leastways, it sounds plausible enough to me. And a perception of dirtiness or defilement might be enough to shape consumer preferences in the above-described direction. Of course, it would work both ways, too. The suppliers of goods would probably have the same or similar sensibilities, so the two pressures on hiring decisions would be mutually reinforcing.Balfegorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08012196656096263507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152270.post-1094516991969454682004-09-06T19:29:00.000-05:002004-09-06T19:29:00.000-05:00This is, of course, certainly connected to why the...This is, of course, certainly connected to why the South was so, so much poorer than the rest of the country. It is possible to discriminate in such a way, if you're willing to do it and live with the consequences of making everybody worse off in the long run. Compliant government, unions, and chamber of commerces making sure that nobody "cheats" help too.<br /><br />Even so, it quickly becomes unsustainable when a sufficient portion of the populace rebels, caring more about money than color of the skin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com