Affirmative Action the poll!

[Valmy]

If Wiki is correct affirmative action is only legal in Sweden regarding male/female and only when hiring people.

So you can fire all the men immediately afterwards?

[The Brain]

If Wiki is correct affirmative action is only legal in Sweden regarding male/female and only when hiring people.

So you can fire all the men immediately afterwards?

I'm not sure what you're after.

[Valmy]

I'm not sure what you're after.

I was just thinking about how I would run "Swedish Bikini Models Inc."

[The Brain]

I'm not sure what you're after.

I was just thinking about how I would run "Swedish Bikini Models Inc."

You could hire a bunch of hot young women. Too simple for the American?

[Valmy]

You could hire a bunch of hot young women. Too simple for the American?

Oh I thought affirmative action applied to male/female whenever you hired people.

[The Brain]

You could hire a bunch of hot young women. Too simple for the American?

Oh I thought affirmative action applied to male/female whenever you hired people.

No, it's legal. Not mandatory.

[grumbler]

I think in the UK if two candidates are more or less equal in all other respects you can positively discriminate on grounds of things like race, age, sex, disability and the like.  I'm broadly supportive of that.

I am, as well, because there are tangible benefits from having a more diverse workforce, student body, etc.  There is no place for quotas, though, because they automatically cheapen the efforts of whomever benefits from them and are unfair to the person who loses the slot because of them.

Again, this poll isn't about affirmative action at all.  It is about quotas.

[grumbler]

There are always quotas, whether explicitly stated or not.  If someone determines there are not enough people from whatever "disadvantaged" group represented in a company, university, etc. then there must be some % or number at which they would be satisfied that there are enough.

There are always quotas in the mind of someone, but who cares?  Affirmative Action isn't about keeping everyone happy.

[dps]

There are always quotas, whether explicitly stated or not.  If someone determines there are not enough people from whatever "disadvantaged" group represented in a company, university, etc. then there must be some % or number at which they would be satisfied that there are enough.

There are always quotas in the mind of someone, but who cares?  Affirmative Action isn't about keeping everyone happy.

The problem is, that's often the way affirmative action programs are administered--as de facto quota systems.

[Eddie Teach]

I don't get anything out of it.

They really ought to start having schools save a couple football scholarships for Asians.

[grumbler]

The problem is, that's often the way affirmative action programs are administered--as de facto quota systems.

Yes, and the non-affirmative-action policies are often administered as de facto racist or sexist systems, but in both quota and racist/sexist cases such are generally illegal.  There have been any number of cases establishing this.  My old alma mater, Michigan, lost one such de facto quota case in the USSC just a coupla years ago, while simultaneously winning another which allowed discrimination in favor of diversity where the candidates were otherwise equally qualified.

[Ideologue]

I like it.

[grumbler]

I don't get anything out of it.

They really ought to start having schools save a couple football scholarships for Asians.

They'll all be taken by Samoans, and Yi will still lose his chance to be that star QB.

[grumbler]

I like it.

What attracts you to quotas?  The arbitrariness of them, or the injustice of them? 

[Ideologue]

I like it.

What attracts you to quotas?  The arbitrariness of them, or the injustice of them? 

Are you attracted to legs or to a face?  It's all part of the same beautiful anthropomorphized statist solution I love.