The fine line between "Buy British" and racism

Mario Rizzo:

A “Great Society” does not require us all to agree on values and the ends we pursue. As such, it must have a variety of institutions and specific organizations which favor some values and discriminate against other values.  

The market is the pre-eminent pluralistic institution. It enables Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist and Atheist to live in harmony with each other because each individual in these groups can engage in voluntary trades with willing partners. We cannot, however, trade with everyone at once. Specialization and cost-efficiencies mean that sometimes people will have to go elsewhere to get what they want. 

via thinkmarkets.wordpress.com

This is part of a typically insightful post about why the conundrum facing the French state about whether it's ok for restaurant chain 'Quick' to only sell Halal, shouldn't really be a conundrum. In a free society these issues are very simple - restaurants are free to provide what they want (within the rule of law), customers are free to be offended (or delighted, or indifferent), and competition forms effective regulation.

Yesterday I was navigating the 'Magic Roundabout' in Hemel and the van in front of me had a sign on the back saying "We only hire British workers". I believe it was a local plumbing company, and clearer saw this as a competitive advantage. I'm ashamed to say that my first thought was "Is that legal?" Who cares? If local racists want to pay above market prices to satisfy their prejudice, let them. That just leads to cheaper plumbing for people like me.

Comments

[Quinn]

While it's a nice thought that the market could step in in place of race discrimination legislation I doubt it works in practice, at least not all the time. For a start, here you use an example of a company who have signalled their racism, but that will rarely be the case. Yes, in theory the practice of exclusively employing Britons would lead to the employers paying above the market price, but that surely depends on the supply of foreign workers; if there are only a handful then they are unlikely to affect the market price all that much and in practice will just be denied employment opportunities on the basis of their nationality. And for you to get cheaper plumbing relies on both foreigners being present in sufficient numbers to exercise market power on wages and for emplyers to then charge a price based on "cost-plus" rather than the market price based on the demand for their services, no? Otherwise all we will see is that racists have lower profit margins.

In all, then, I'd say that wondering "Is it legal?" is a better way to deal with discrimination than wondering "will the market and my own wishes align on this one?"