On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 02:42:28PM -0800, DJA wrote: > John Oliver wrote: > >On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 01:23:37PM -0800, Neil Schneider wrote: > >>John Oliver wrote: > >> > >>>I am far more afraid of a society that commands me that > >>>I must provide an equal service to everyone, regardless of the costs > >>>borne by me, than I am of a society where I might be expected to pay > >>>more when I want more of a good or service. > >>> > >>So you are against equal treatment? > > > >Of course I am. So are you. > > > >Two people contact you for your services. One needs one hour of your > >time. The other needs ten. Are you going to charge them the same? No? > >What's this? You aren't treating them "equally"? > > > >The varying desire for a scarce resource (your time / space in an > >airplane) results in a varying cost. > > > >For the record, I'm also against "anti-discrimination" laws. I do not > >believe that a bigot should be forced to rent their home to a black > >family, for example. If I own my home or business, I should have the > >ultimate say in who I serve and how. Maybe I decide I will only serve > >red-haired people, or maybe I'll serve brunettes, too, but for twice the > >price. What business is that of anyone but me? Those whom I refuse to > >serve can, and will, seek service elsewheres. Someone else will see > >blondes and brunettes and people with black hair who have money to > >spend, and they'll see a fool refusing to take it. They will open a > >competing business and serve those people. Maybe I will go out of > >business because there aren't enough redheads to keep me solvent. Maybe > >even a number of those redheads will be disgusted with me for refusing > >to serve their blond or brunette friends, and will go patronize the > >competition. But I do not believe that anyone, including "society", has > >a right to force me to do business on any terms but my own, excluding, > >of course, contracts that I freely enter into. > > Isn't all that pretty much the definition (and justification) of > bigotry? All that's missing is the motivation for the definition.
You're confusing cause and effect. Bigotry is hating someone else for something other than their actions or words. There are, unfortunately, many people in this world who hate other people with different skin colors, religions, ethnicities, etc. Forcing them to "be nice" to each other doesn't eliminate bigotry... it just masks it. If someone hated me for some bixzarre reason, I'd rather know about it and not do business with them. I wouldn't want to find out later that I had been supplying a profit to someone who hated me. -- *********************************************************************** * John Oliver http://www.john-oliver.net/ * * * *********************************************************************** -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
