What is the cost of affirmative action? The standard economic analysis tells us both prejudice and affirmative action move force businesses away from some place of optimum efficiency. In the real world, of course, business owners and managers have little way to tell if they are in the spot of optimum efficiency which can, after all, change from moment to moment since value is a subjective judgment of the human psyche. Additionally, to say that affirmative action could stand in the way of a business hiring employees that would bring them closer to optimum efficiency is very unlikely since there is little way an employer can tell much of anything about a new hire. New hires are always a gamble. In most cases, an employer always expects to train new employees. Is there some reason to think that minorities are less trainable?
A sad and yet somehow wonderful truth is that most business owners try to keep the doors open and try to make some money along the way. Few have conclusive directions to the place of optimum efficiency. There might be a better place of greater efficiency that is unseen by the owner/manager. Therein is the value of diversity. Seeing things in a different perspective leads to huge advances in the Universe of most optimum efficiencies. In any case, there is no reason to think that practicing affirmative action would be a detriment to business. People may not be interchangeable, but it is hardly likely that there would be no minority candidate that would qualify for any particular job.
