Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
In the "Best Of" box to the right is The Reparations Series, which links to a series of posts on, of course, reparations for Black folks. I took the original posts and the HaloScan comments and cobbled together some permanent pages. I also imported the posts, but of course they're buried under the posts that accrue like barnacles around here.
Well, a couple of folks have located the imported versions. A trackback to this post and a comment to this one have been made, and since the topic is one of my favorite cans of worms I'm thinking about whether or not to revisit it. Seriously, it was covered pretty well last time, by myself and the commenters. I'll answer the commenter later, cuz I got stuff ta do right now.
Posted by P6 at October 22, 2003 08:37 PM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2077this is an example of an issue i swung around 180 degrees on because of people smarter than me straightening me out. all i will say about it beyond that is, it's a way more complicated problem AND proposed solution than many make it out to be, due to its "hot button" status. and, although i'm sure to get a burr or two in my shoe for this one, in theory at least i think it's a pretty good idea. i'm not sure about the method or liklihood of an effective implementation, but the rationale is good.
this is the sort of thing we need a few more really, really smart liberal economists for.
I don't know what an economist will tell you besides what we already know: no matter what approach is taken, it's going to cost more than anyone wants to pay.
Here's a perfect example, and it explains how affirmative action turned into quotas in far too many places:
The state's flagship school has been in a bind since June, when the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action was legal, but simultaneously struck down "point" systems for boosting the chances of minority candidates. A handful of large state schools like UMass-Amherst had relied on such systems for increasing the numbers of minority freshmen without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a deeply individualized admissions review process.
Prejudging people and quota-type systems are just cheaper and easier than making the judgements necessary to adjust systems and policies such that only objective criteria are taken into account. Especially when, due to the previous system, you haven't the experience with folks to know what criteria would apply to them…or, as in most cases, your preconceptions operate preconsciously.
This issue came back into my own mind recently after reading this news story