Profits and Prejudice

"Greed in all of its forms--greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge--has marked the upward surge of mankind."
--Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)

"All they care about is the bottom line" is a claim often uttered by people who oppose free markets and capitalism. Many of those same people also claim that those same unhampered markets discriminate and are in need of regulation in the name of equality.

Well, which is it? It is difficult to be both profit oriented and bigoted in free markets.

As observed here (and on these pages as well), prejudice is expensive in unfettered competitive environments. Bigots who turn away customers because of their skin color, for instance, or refuse to hire talent of a particular gender will pay dearly by leaving money and productivity on the table for rivals to exploit.

In unhampered markets, bigoted operators get weaker while those who care about the bottom line get stronger.

Stated differently, capitalism tempers prejudice in the name of self-interest.