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Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 87 of Harold Demsetz’s superb 1965 North Carolina Law Review article titled “Minorities in the Market Place,” as this article is reprinted in Ownership, Control, and the Firm [2] (Volume 1 of a collection of some of Demsetz’s finest articles [1988]):

unknownEqual pay for equal work, whether emanating directly from equal pay laws or from the special legal treatment accorded unions, prohibits non-preferred persons from compensating discriminating employers by offering wealth compensation.  Since no wage differential can be offered, since no cost can be imposed on employers who discriminate, fewer persons who are non-preferred will be hired for the jobs they seek.

DBx: Indeed.

If you are black in a town with lots of racists – if you are gay or lesbian in a community with lots of homophobes – if you are Muslim in a place with lots of Islamaphobes – if you are Jewish in a society with lots of anti-semites – if you are a woman in a city with lots of male chauvinists – if you are uglier than average, if you speak the native language of a place poorly, if your job skills are few – you should be especially hostile to legislation that forces you to price your labor at wage rates no lower than the rates fetched by more-preferred workers.

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