Competency Eliminates the Need for Affirmative Action

Some in America are attempting to pass laws to extinguish human nature. Historically only totalitarian nations have tried to override human nature with unintended disastrous results.

The state of Michigan has passed a law making it a crime to discriminate against height and weight in employment. Next will be laws to protect cross-eyed, freckled, sunken chest or large nosed people.

The reality is we are all unique in feelings, looks, thinking and preferences. We all have been discriminated against and we all have discriminated against others whether we admit it or not. Our likes and dislikes are different. This diversity makes life and people interesting.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, continues to shock and mystify us. What could that person see in the other one is a question we continually ask ourselves throughout our lives. It just illustrates that we all see things differently. Our unique human nature and experiences shape our preferences in choosing who we want and do not want to associate with in our personal lives and in the workplace.

For workers in a free market economy there is one characteristic that supercedes all other preferences. It is competency to do the job. When a person can get the job done efficiently with a positive attitude he will more likely get the position over even a family member who is lazy and obnoxious.

There is presently no need for affirmative action laws from a central government to get hired when a person has good skills, good work ethic and a positive disposition. A person with these characteristics is sought after by employers to advance the business. They can be short, tall, fat or slim, dark or translucent, small or large individuals. In a free enterprise economy getting the job done effectively is the major consideration for anyone doing the hiring.

We are in a global economy. The US cannot afford the lunacy of social engineering in the work place. The need to conform to the demographic formula devised by government bureaucrats to appease special interests is a poison pill to business.

When government interferes with our freedom of whom to choose to hire they are not only limiting our liberty, but they are tampering with our free enterprise economy. This is a system that relies on motivating people to do more than the minimum.

The American economy cannot compete vigorously when the free market forces are repressed by big government. The multitude of nationwide employer’s hiring decisions has proven to create a more vibrant economy then putting the power into the hands of a centralized government. We have recently seen the economic miracle of unleashing the power of a free market economy throughout Asia. The best person to perform a job will triumph over some pseudo scientific rationale for supposedly leveling the playing field.

Government interference in the work place in the form of affirmative action only creates resentment. The workers who were selected as part of a quota system will never be sure they earned the position. The worker not selected or advanced to a higher position would likely resent the worker chosen under this arbitrary government quota system.

Choosing the best qualified person is not perfect. The process is subjective. There are always going to be people complaining about being discriminated against. This will continue to happen regardless of any new naïve legislation imposed by governmental elites.

We should transfer the monies given to affirmative action bureaucrats to education programs to increase worker skills, attitude and work ethic. Prepared employees on every level will increase their likelihood of obtaining and keeping a job. This is a win-win situation for the employee and the employer. It certainly leaves the decision making in the hands of the person with the most knowledge of how best to fill the position.

By allowing the employer the freedom to run his own business, the worker, regardless of gender, race or physical characteristics has the best chance of obtaining a job on his own merits. This leads to a greater chance of job satisfaction, commitment and growth in the organization. The government has no need or right to muscle in on the employers’ prerogative to hire someone they may not want.

Let us keep free enterprise free.