Should the Government be Alllowed to Discriminate?

From: G
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2017 2:59 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Highschool economics project

Hello my name is G. I go to xyz High School. I am working on a project in my historical economics class. I have chosen you to make a poster about. Economics interests more than anything else in my school and extra curricular activities. I chose you because of your controversial work. I agree with a lot of what I have read about you. But I came across something you said that I would like to have a little more context for. I read an article tilted “Professor Who Defends Segregation”. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/24/loyola-new-orleans-discusses-professor-who-defends-segregation

In this article you are said to have said that you have no problem with businesses excluding certain groups of people because they want to. I have no problem with this statement at all and in fact I agree with you completely that a private business owner should not have to offer his service or good to anyone he doesn’t want to. But as I was thinking about this I thought what about the government. I personally think a government should not discriminate racially or religiously through their own citizens but I wanted to receive your own opinion on the subject. F.Y.I I am emailing you out of my own curiosity. I may or may not use your answer on my project.

Dear G:
I do indeed have a (personal) problem with businesses excluding certain groups of people because they want to. Groups such as gays, women, blacks, Jews, etc. I have a problem with such exclusions, I think they are nasty, I wouldn’t patronize a store that did that. But I still think such exclusions should be legal. In contrast, I have no problem at all with businesses excluding people who are disruptive, loud, naked, etc. Consider “No shoes, no shirt, no service.” I have no problem with that. That, too, in my opinion, should also be legal.

In my view, government shouldn’t exist in the first place. I’m an anarcho-capitalist. But, if it does exist, I don’t think it should discriminate on any basis at all: even on the basis of people who are disruptive, loud, naked, etc. I don’t think that public universities should be able to discriminate on the basis of intelligence, grade point averages in high school, GREs, etc. Would this ruin public universities? Yes, of course. But as a libertarian, this prospect does not bother me by one whit. The very opposite in fact.

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10:55 pm on October 22, 2017