yalovetz: A black and white scan of an illustration of an old Jewish man from Kurdistan looking a bit grizzled (0)
Gene ([personal profile] yalovetz) wrote in [personal profile] tinyjo 2007-01-09 03:02 pm (UTC)

Because selling goods and services (such as hotel services) is a critical component of an economic system. An economic system is a mechanism designed to distribute resources. I want my economic systems to distribute resources as fairly as possible.

It wouldn't be all that problematic if just one person wanted to refuse to sell just me just one item because they didn't like me personally, or had some obscure personal prejudice against me. But when their prejudice is based on widespread prejudices reinforced in and by the rest of society then their refusal to sell me that item becomes part of a larger pattern where lots of people who are like me in certain ways are refused service by many different vendors in many different circumstances and over an extended period of time. This larger pattern constitutes a societal prejudice that has become systemic (as in, embedded in the overall economic system). Legislation like this is a way of trying to remove that large scale prejudice from the economic system we use to distribute goods and services, not necessarily about changing individuals' personal preferences.

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