Capitalism and Discrimination

Capitalism and Discrimination

History is full of examples where capitalism allowed discriminated populates to escape their discrimination. The Jews were able to survive the Middle Ages because of the market place. Quakers were able to gather the required funds to escape to the New World. 

It's not a perfect system, of course, but it's the best one we have. When blacks were freed, capitalism gave them the chance to escape the bondage keeping them restricted to farms. They were slowly able to gain traction and open up businesses or find jobs that paid 'well' compared to be a sharecropper. 

Capitalism destroys discrimination because you won't know what race or religious preference someone creating a loaf of bread is. It actually harms the vast majority of businesses to share their political views. For example, Chick-Fal-A shared their views of gay marriage, or I should say the owner did, and watched their sales plummet. But their sales not only plummeted but they were also tormented by the media. 

The best example of capitalism would be the pencil. Not a single person could possibly posses the necessary knowledge in order to make the 5 cent pencil you purchase. It's such a simple thing yet such a complicated thing. Where does the brass come from and who smelts it down? Where does the wood come from and who cuts/shapes it? Where does the glue come from that they use to glue the pieces of pencil together? Where does the graphite come from and who mines it? Where does the rubber come from? The one thing that brings them all together is money and not race nor religion.

Lets hypothetically say you live in the 1800s and own a bar. At that bar, racist whites drink and eat their. Your racist, white customers don't want blacks to drink or eat their so you offer them a black-free experience. For this experience, you can jack up their prices. Is it wrong for the bar owner to ban blacks? No. The whites are paying a little extra in order to have a black-free bar experience. 

If the bar was federally owned, that's a bit different. However, as long as it's private property and not owned by black shareholders or federal agencies, it's fine. Should you be forced to allow homeless people to live in your home? If the bar was hypothetically owned by a black shareholder also, if he decided to keep it the way it was, that's fine. 

A man who won't work or purchase something while a black man will always be disadvantaged. He will be forced to pay higher prices for things he could get at normal prices by a black man. His scope of range is smaller. 

It's somewhat similar to paying for more expensive tickets; yes you could see a cheaper singer but that isn't the point, you want to see the most expensive one. In a way, though, it's discrimination to see one singer over the other. Or you may even have a preference to purchase coke over Pepsi. 

The man who purchases the more expensive thing is doing so because he chooses to! That's one of the amazing things about capitalism; choosing who you want to do business with! Who you are not willing to pay a certain price, should it not be legal for a business to supply you the service you'd like? 

Another hypothetical that you should consider. You own a grocery store in a neighborhood of mostly blacks who dislike whites, would it make sense to hire a white clerk? By hiring the white clerk, the grocery store will lose sales. If you're legally forced to hire a white clerk, the government will be forcing you to lose sales. You may even potentially be forced to close down depending how much they dislike the white population. 

I find that when people discriminate others based on race or religion deploring but I must make it clear that I am not racist but simply don't support laws to stop "discrimination". The laws will have unattended consequences that will harm the businesses and put more regulations in a society filled of regulations. The more regulations that are added, the more that businesses will close shop and move to another country. Or, those regulations will stop employers from hiring people or they'll be forced to fire people and downsize. 

You must keep in mind that businesses are not simply one of a kind; they all have different conditions that sweeping laws will harm. If a business actively participates in discrimination, it will more than likely harm itself like Chick-Fal-A did.