The Freeman 1989 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

32 THE FREEMAN. JANUARY 1989ing the advertisement into the computer system,I sat back and thought ofhow many people weregoing to apply for the job and how many theowner was going to have to tum down beforefinding the right applicant. I then thought of thenumber ofpeople who were going to read the adnot knowing what the employer was specificallylooking for, and waste their time and effortalong with his money just to be told "no."The Right to HireTwo forms of civil rights legislation affectthe business owner's right to hire. Equal Opportunityguarantees that a person be consideredfor a job without regard to race, age, or sex.Affirmative Action, on the other hand, commandsthat a person be hired with regard to suchcriteria.How contradictory the two anti-discriminationlaws are! And the results are pernicious.If someone is hired on any basis other than individualmerit, the employer will generallyhave employees who perform substandardwork. Time, money, and energy are spent tryingto correct and/or overcome substandardwork-time that could be devoted to improvingproduct quality. The bottom line is that a corporationis only as good as its product, and theproduct is only as good as its makers.A popular misconception is that a "product"is merely a material item with physical dimensions.But services are products, too. The producta waitress makes is food service. The producta salesman makes is selling. The product amechanic produces is automotive maintenance.The product a doctor provides is health care. Ifany of these positions were to be filled strictlyby Affirmative Action, what kind of servicewould the consumer get? The consumer can alwaysgo to another restaurant for better foodservice, another doctor for a second opinion,and another salesman for a different kind ofproduct. But what if the options are limited?What if there are no choices?The consumer ultimately loses his freedom ofchoice. It is a freedom no person and no businesscan afford to be without.DAchieving Genuine EqualityDespite our problems, one of the central facts of American historyhas been the achievement of a high degree of individual equalityfor most citizens. Perhaps the nation somehow sensed that humanbeings achieve their fulfillment in what they become. Certainly we aremost fully ourselves as we aspire to further development, and enjoy thefreedom to pursue it. It is in connection with our aspiration that we seekequality for each person. Surely race or sex is an inadequate basis for suchequality. We do not aspire to be black, white, or yellow, male or female.These categories are facts of existence, but the achievement which we seekin life must lie elsewhere, and it is elsewhere that the definition of trueequality must also be located.What we all want, and what some members of society presently lack, isacceptance as an individual by others. It is that acceptance which constitutesgenuine equality. Each of us wants to be a person in his own right.Such acceptance can hardly be produced by governmental compulsion.Compulsion smothers any creative response to a problem.-GEORGE C. ROCHE III,The Balancing ActIDEASONLIBERTY