Anti-Discriminatory Laws that Discriminate Part 2

In the second post for this blog I would like continue explaining why government anti-discrimination laws do not work but in fact make the situation worse for minority groups or those groups who the government thinks is being discriminated against. I had planned on making this a two post blog but with additional reading and studying over the last week I have come across more evidence from Thomas Sowell's "The Economics and Politics of Race." Sowell is a well known expert on economics and race issues and has been a college professor for years and is now a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute.

Politicians love to pass laws during positive "trends" and then take credit for that trend some years later. Case in point with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I told you I agree with amendments that rid our government of political discrimination. But laws that seek to punish private discrimination or make up to those who have been discriminated against in the past have become dismal failures. After the Civil Rights Act was passed a growing number of Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican Americans were entering higher paying occupations than ever before. But was it due to this law? At the same time more Mexican Americans were completing high school and college enrollment had already doubled for Black Americans before the law. Many Asians had already overtaken whites in years of schooling themselves. Many minorities were becoming becoming better at the English language and a reduction of violence was common in areas highly populated by many minority groups. Could these have not been the most significant reasons for the rise in employment and income? But politicians like taking full credit for the improvements of employment and income rises of minorities after this law passed. Blacks entering higher paying jobs grew after the passing of the Civil Rights Act. But the number of blacks in "professional, technical and similar high level occupations more than DOUBLED between 1954 and 1964" according to Thomas Sowell. This was the decade BEFORE the law was passed. This trend continued after the passage of this law not because of this law.

I agree that political action was needed to end the discriminatory practices of federal, state and local governments. We do live in a free society where all men are equal after all. These laws prohibiting government discrimination increased the number of black officials nearly eight-fold from 1964-1975. That is a good thing. But attempts to lessen private people's discrimination only worsened the problem. Affirmative action led to a lowering of Puerto Rican family income from 63 percent of the national average to just 50 percent 5 years later. Black income fluctuated and Mexican Americans' declined slightly as well.

Affirmative action helped those Black males who were already fortunate. Black Males' income with college completed and more than 6 years of work experience rose from 75% of white income to 98 percent. In fact college educated black couples earned more than college educated white couples as of 1980. The reason the national average is so far off for Blacks before affirmative action is due to other issues like teenage pregnancy, low education, divorce rate, violence and other issues not just discrimination. With these issues on the decline the gaps would have closed even without affirmative action. Fortunate minorities were not hurt by this law however, Black males with only 8 to 11 years of schooling and and less than 6 years of work experience had their income drop from 79-69% of the same described white males. This is because affirmative action increased the demand for "safe" black employees but DECREASED it for new and uneducated black employees due to the "scrutiny of their subsequent pay, promotion [requirements], discharge patterns (being allowed to fire them), and other issues that made it risky to employ groups that routinely did not work out well for the employer. Due to these risks, less fortunate minorities were hurt by affirmative action while already fortunate minorities were helped. This sounds a lot like the minimum wage laws effect. Overall this law hurts blacks and other minority groups.

The purpose of these posts are to show you that politicians love to pass laws that force our private sector to take certain actions that cause unintended consequences.
I think it is immoral and unconstitutional for the federal government to pass laws that keep Private sector employers from discriminating even if they wanted to. It is their choice. In the next post I will explain why private individuals could discriminate in the past and get away with it without a loss in income and why in a pure free market why it would be impossible to discriminate without it costing you.