Discrimination

[Guest guest]

I'm reposting this here because it fits discussions we've had

recently. I've trimmed it to only include the relevant parts... if

you want to read the whole thing, here's the link. This is from

, the guy who writes Dilbert. I had the pleasure of working in

the Bay Area when was still at PacBell and knew poeple that knew

him (two degrees away from him). Aside from being snarky on occasion,

he's pretty damned good at making the obvious seem insightful. I'd

vote for him to head NAEMT - we just might get somewhere then...

<http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/12/discrimination.html>

Mike

Quote from follows:

Discrimination

Most enlightened people agree that discrimination is bad. The thing

they can't agree on is who should be on the protected list. The

general rule is that you shouldn't discriminate against people for

things they can't control, such as gender, ethnicity or disability.

But there are some interesting exceptions to the rule.

For example, it's totally legal for an employer to reject a stupid

person even though stupid people can't control being stupid. As far as

I can tell, the only reason you can still discriminate against the

stupid is – and this will come as no surprise – they aren't well

organized. If they tried to hold a rally, everyone would wander off in

a different direction. And lord only knows what the signs would say.

Another part of the problem is that stupid people have trouble knowing

whether they belong in the stupid people group or not. If you're

physically disabled, you probably know it. But if you're stupid,

chances are that you think there's something wrong with everyone else.

And you probably don't have much time to think about it anyway, given

all the hours you spend expressing your wrongteous indignation on the

Internet.

If stupid people ever tried to raise money for their cause, all they

would get is blank stares and " Why are you asking ME? " And no

politician wants to be known as the candidate who accepted the most

campaign funding from " The Assoshiashun of Stoopid Peeple. "

You might argue that it is in society's overwhelming best interest to

discriminate against stupid people because otherwise the economy would

crumble. But I would argue that if idiots couldn't get jobs for which

they are unqualified, your workplace would be empty right now. And

that wouldn't be good for the economy either. So apparently it's good

for the economy to discriminate against stupid people as long as

employers are not very effective at doing it.

<snip>