Posted by: Scot Penslar
Comment: #1
Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:42 PM
As usual, Mr. Stossel makes some excellent points in this article. People may ask, "What about the anti-discrimination laws that were passed in the 1950s and '60s? Do we really want to go back to a time when it was legal for a business owner to refuse to hire someone, or to refuse to serve a customer, because of their race or color?" The fact is, with or without those laws, racial discrimination would have died a natural death. Does anyone remember the Montgomery bus boycott? One of the most famous instances of organized action against institutionalized racism, the boycott forced the city of Montgomery, Alabama to allow riders to sit wherever they wanted to on the city-owned buses, regardless of race. No legislation or court decision was needed; in fact, the boycott was an action by private citizens AGAINST the government.
¶ In a free-market system, employment should be a voluntary agreement between employer and employee. Unless it's specified otherwise in a written contract, employment should be considered "at will" and nobody "owns" their job. Economics 101: The more difficult the law makes it for someone to be fired from their job, the less likely they are to be hired in the first place.
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