On Thu, 19 Aug 2010, J.A. Simmons V wrote:

> A history professor I had loved to tell the story of his cousin who 
> owned a piggly-wiggly in a good-ol' boy Alabama town during the civil 
> rights movement. His cousin refused to high a single black (do not know 
> of any other minorities). Well, since the majority of his clientele was 
> black, they refused to shop at his store. He eventually had to bend to 
> the demands of the public.

Oh, OK, so the free market worked to stop a racist employer from refusing 
to hire black workers, but only in a place with a majority of black 
customers who had to organize to stop him.  What happened in places where 
the majority was black but there were no other grocery stores.  What about 
places where the majority was white and the minority was black.  I have to 
say that a government intervention seems like the right thing -- it gets 
jobs for the black people, jobs that they deserve, and it spares the local 
black population from the hassles of having to organize a boycott to get 
what should have been theirs in the first place: freedom from racial 
discrimination in hiring.

Do you really think your story is a good argument for a free market in 
hiring that allows for racist discrimination?


> The same for the bus boycott that was sparked by Rosa Parks.

Right, it's good that poor black people have to suffer such humiliations 
and hassles to get a seat in the front half of the bus.  But what if 
blacks were 5% of the riding population and the local whites preferred 
that the black riders have to sing and tap dance for them while riding? 
It would be OK for the bus company to require that they do so, right? 
I'm sure you'll say yes, because that's what a free market is all about. 
Suppose the boycott didn't work because they could do without the 5% rider 
share in order to please their white customers.  Now the blacks either 
dance or walk.  Sounds bad, but I'll bet the free market has a cure .... 
yes, it's that another bus company will spring into existence to give 
rides to blacks.  But whites won't use the new buses, so they can only 
serve 5% of the people and have to run way less often.  Freedom in action. 
So it all works out -- the black people in a majority-white local dealing 
with racism and a racist bus company have to live with second-rate busing. 
Too Friggin' Bad.  Don't cry to me -- it's FREEDOM!  Let's keep government 
out of it.  Government is too restrictive.


> I will disagree with your statement that with a free market, you get 
> what you get. I would say that with a free market, you get what is 
> offered. You can either negotiate for what you want, look for another 
> company that is offering what you are after, or build your own company 
> that does what you are looking to do (obvious market segment that is 
> being ignored). Add regulations to that, and now you are tying the hands 
> of any entrepreneur who is trying to provide a service to others.

When you say "add regulations to that," what do you have in mind?  I'm 
unaware of rules preventing people from starting businesses that provide 
services.

Mike