Well, in a free market, the 5% minority would probably start their own bus or transit service. And, a few majority folk might even want in on that because there is a small market of the minority wanting a better service and a small market of the majority who want a bus service that doesn't make the minority do stupid things. The free market isn't perfect, but most people will take the slow moving iron fist over excessive government intervention. A more recent example, Minneapolis used to have only a handful of taxis companies per city code- until one person challenged and succeeded in overturning this regulatory restriction that was intended to protect consumers but in modern times was just abused by a monopolistic group of companies for their own financial gain. It goes both ways, free market and government regulation can be excessive or lacking at times depending on the issue at hand. Honestly I hate both sides almost equally with a slight inclination toward the free market. Jeremy MountainJohnson jeremy at jskier.com On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 6:34 PM, Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com> wrote: > > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list