Sunday, May 23, 2010

Principles and Dead Weight

Principles and Dead Principles and Dead Weight. Recently Rand Paul has made headlines with statements concerning the 1964 civil rights act. The united states passed sweeping rights legislation in 1964, including a right to public accommodation. This meant that private businesses could not refuse service based on factors like race. Me. Paul is a republican/libertarian. Libertarians have a dim view of government and prefer it to be as small as possible. They oppose government interference in the private affairs of the citizen, that includes how you run your own business. So quite in keeping with his well known support of libertarian ideals opposes the accommodations section of the civil rights act. He hates racism but supports the individuals right to be racist in their business practices.
This is an example of when theory fails in practise. It fails only because our society has chosen to value equality above certain forms of liberty. It fails because in the real world, economic factors that libertarians believe would cause an eventual end this form of discrimination, do not in fact work. Cultural and social conventions created over time inform people on how to act. If they tell you that race or religion matter and it is OK to discriminate then racism becomes a collective act. Where oddly enough the pressure exerted is against the liberty of persons to not discriminate. The idea that racism is bad for business so will be it's own downfall is misleading. If you operate a business in a town where discrimination is accepted your operations would suffer if you didn't discriminate. Economic penalties would arise only if the individual acts against the social and cultural norm.
This preoccupation that conservatives and especially libertarians have that our world is largely self regulating and if left alone would become the best of possible worlds is bankrupt. Worse still is the belief that free market economics can lead the way. People act in accordance with social and cultural norms. These norms are supported by political institutions. It is only by removing political support for dicsrimination through legislation that change can occur.
Sometimes ideology fails in practise. Though failure largely depends on what kind of outcome you favour.

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