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Path: utzoo!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.social
Subject: AA just institutionalizes class struggle
Message-ID: <297@looking.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 00:00:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: looking.297
Posted: Fri Jun 21 00:00:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 00:22:26 EDT
References: <482@ttidcc.UUCP> <198@fear.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont
Lines: 34
Xref: watmath net.women:5982 net.social:708
Summary: AA creates legal classes and puts them at odds

One point about AA that I've never understood.  It, and so many other
laws seem to break society up into two classes, "employer" and "employed".

It very much turns things into an "us" vs. "them" deal.  When you trade
money for services, it should be like all other fair trades - both sides
win.  But employment laws turn this into a class vs. class situation where
one person has the "right" to a job and the other a "duty" to provide it.

The laws never go the other way.  Can anybody imagine a law that demanded
more white people go work for companies owned by blacks?  Some professions
are employee's market (for example, programming) as opposed to automaking,
where it's an employer's market.  How about a law that said, "It seems that
white men choose to work at companies owned by other white men.  We insist
you go quit your job and work for companies owned by black woman since
you aren't doing it in numbers proportional to their percentage of the
population."

How about, "You aren't buying enough cars built by black people.  We'll
put a tax on white-built cars."

(Sounds a lot like, "You aren't buying enough cars built by Americans,
we'll put a tax on cars built by Japs." which is even more frightening
because it's true.)

"Not enough novels written by women are bought.  We'll fine anybody who
doesn't buy 51% female books and 49% male books.  And let's also fine
the publishers who don't sign 51% female authors and 49% male authors."

As somebody who worked his way up from the employee class to the employer
class, I have always been insulted by other people's attempts to control
how I spend my money or sell my services.   People should instead take
the pro-choice view, and leave such decisions to the individuals.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473