MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘equity’

Biden’s New Intersectionality: Where Equity Policies Meet Bad Economics | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on May 16, 2023

Although the chart no longer is found on the Smithsonian website, the mentality that created it lives on in the policies of the Biden administration. To show its commitment to equity—equal outcomes—the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) implemented a new policy on May 1, 2023, that punishes homebuyers with high credit scores who can put down at least 15–20 percent on a mortgage by making them pay higher interest rates and extra fees. Declares a Wall Street Journal editorial:

Good credit score = bad social score

https://mises.org/wire/bidens-new-intersectionality-where-equity-policies-meet-bad-economics

William L. Anderson

In the summer of 2020, the Smithsonian Institution created a chart meant to condemn what it calls “whiteness,” and it listed a number of characteristics it claimed were essential to “white culture.” Among the so-called characteristics it described in pejorative terms was delaying gratification, or saving for the future, what Austrian economists would call low time preference.

The chart, which was withdrawn after widespread protest, sought to identify the characteristics needed to build not only an economy but civilization itself with a racist culture. Thus, the kind of lifestyle and values that might culminate in someone having high credit scores and saving up for a significant down payment for a house were something not to be emulated or praised, but rather to be called out and declared shameful.

Although the chart no longer is found on the Smithsonian website, the mentality that created it lives on in the policies of the Biden administration. To show its commitment to equity—equal outcomes—the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) implemented a new policy on May 1, 2023, that punishes homebuyers with high credit scores who can put down at least 15–20 percent on a mortgage by making them pay higher interest rates and extra fees. Declares a Wall Street Journal editorial:

According to calculations by Evercore ISI, buyers with strong credit scores between 720 and 739 who make 15%–20% down payments will see their rates increase by 0.750%. Borrowers who put down 20%–25% will see rates increase by 0.500%.

The winners are borrowers with weak credit scores—that is, riskier borrowers. Under current FHFA policy, a borrower with a weak credit score below 620, who is borrowing more than 95% of the value of their home, pays 3.750%. Under Ms. Thompson’s new plan, those borrowers will see their fees decrease by 1.750%.

Not surprisingly, commentators like James Bovard have rightly attacked this policy as one that imposes perverse incentives, turning the rewards for creditworthiness upside down. Bovard writes:

Starting May 1, The Post exposed last week, a Biden administration decree will require adjusting mortgage calculations to penalize homebuyers with a FICO credit score of 680 and above—almost two-thirds of the population.

This levy will be used to reduce costs for people with low credit scores—i.e., risky borrowers more likely to default on mortgages.

However, this is not merely another version of the Law of Unintended Consequences, in which well-meaning government officials implement a policy without looking at the so-called bigger picture. The consequences here are intended. The Biden administration officials know full well the implications of this new policy and is sending the message that the notion of creditworthiness itself is implicitly racist.

As Newsweek points out, the racial gaps in home ownership and credit scores are significant:

See the rest here

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How About Affirmative Action for the NBA?

Posted by M. C. on April 24, 2023

https://open.substack.com/pub/walterblock/p/how-about-affirmative-action-for?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

LUIS RIVERA

By Walter E. Block

Suppose there were affirmative action for the National Basketball Association.  What would it look like?

Before we address that question, we must ask: why would anyone even think of such a policy?  It is simple.  We want an NBA that “looks like America.”  Right now, this league does not at all fit that bill.  Blacks are only 13% of the population, yet they constitute something like 80% of the players.

As a first step in this initiative, we would have to fire most of the black athletes now in the league.  Then we would be obligated to hire enough whites so that the racial makeup would at least roughly conform to that of the entire nation.

But that would be only the beginning of the process.  We would be seeking not only equal proportional representation, but also equity.  That is, the goal would be that these newcomers would be treated in much the same manner as those they had replaced.  In a word, we want to make them feel welcome, as though they “belong,” that they are not at all second-class citizens.

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Sports DEI – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on January 19, 2023

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/01/walter-e-block/sports-dei/

By Walter E. Block

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has been sweeping the nation. It has been applied to all sorts of institutions, albeit, preeminently, education. It is time, it is past time, that this initiative be spread out, even further. To wit, it should be introduced into the realm of sports.

According to DEI, the reason whites do better at earning wealth, educational attainment, employment, more stable families, incarceration rates, STEM occupations, etc., has nothing to do with ability, IQ levels, studiousness, work ethic, or anything else of that sort. Rather, it is all due to white racism. It is a little difficult to reconcile that claim with the undeniable fact that Orientals outstrip Occidentals in most of these dimensions, but let that pass. We do not want to assess DEI theory too harshly here. Instated, we want to apply it to the realm of athletics.

How would that work? First, let us consider professional basketball.

The percentage of black players is 73%, while they comprise only some 13% of the overall population. Whites make up 17% of these splendid athletes, but 76% of the total population. Asians? They comprise 0.4% of the NBA but 6% of all people in the US. Thus, blacks are highly overrepresented, while whites and Orientals are significantly underrepresented.

How can we account for these statistics? According to the DEI philosophy it has nothing to do with the fact that “white men can’t jump.” Rather, the culprit here, wait for it, I hope you’re sitting down while you read this, is black racism. Caucasians and Asians have just as much ability, on average, as do Africans and African Americans, but the latter just won’t allow them into the game to the degree that their abilities would warrant. Black athletes are just mean spirited. These world class sports pros are in effect hogging the ball. True, virtually all of the teams are owned by whites and as per usual, the buck stops at the top. But we’re going to ferret out black racism wherever it lies, with neither fear nor favor, and according to the DEI principles, it rests squarely with this demographic.

A similar analysis applies to football, where the players, disproportionately to their share of the total population, favor blacks (71%) over whites (25%). Data for track and field, marathon running is harder to come by, but eyeball experience indicates that blacks are keeping whites at “the back of the bus” to an even greater extent in these activities too.

However, when it comes to swimming and hockey (93% white), matters reverse. Here, at last, we find the evils of “white supremacy.” There are hardly any blacks with important accomplishments in either venue. This of course has nothing to do with black disinterest or lack of ability in either sport. No, we again utilize the DEI premise that all races are equally able in all dimensions. Expert economist Thomas Sowell says otherwise, over and over again, with evidence you could knock an elephant over with, but what does he know? If there are any differences in success rates it must necessarily be due to racism. Anyone who denies this is himself a racist. QED.

What are we then to make of the fact that too few basketball and football coaches are of African descent? Only seven out of 29 head NBA coaches were black last year. According to National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts “These numbers are just disgraceful…” But seven out of 29 is 24% roughly double the percentage of the black population. What is going on here? The craziness of DEI is going on here. This is true not only at the professional level, but includes college teams as well.

One last thing. DEI has all but banned ACT and SAT scores in academia. Why? That is because certain demographic groups do better, far better, than other demographic groups. Nor has this “gap” narrowed, despite heroic efforts for this to be done on the part of the wokists. What solution have the politically correct forces instituted to deal with this obvious injustice? Why, of course, to ban ACT and SAT scores in academia.

Can we do any less in sports DEI? Of course not. We wouldn’t want to be considered racists. Accordingly, we propose that all analogs to these tests be prohibited. No scoring in any sport. No calculation of times or places in foot races or in the swimming pool.

What about prizes such as the Stanley Cup in hockey, the gold, silver and bronze medals in the Olympics, the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy in basketball and the Vince Lombardi Trophy in football (the Superbowl, too, should be considered in this regard; it too is an award, and therefore suspicious). Again, we resort to DEI in academia for our model. There, proportionality, diversity, are the benchmarks.  If we borrow a leaf from that practice, these sports awards should be given out not on the basis of ability, not based on points scored, or touchdowns, or distance thrown in the javelin, or time for foot races, but, rather, based on the proportion of a given demographic in the overall population. We wouldn’t want any racial community to have more than its fair share, now would we.

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The Biden Admin Reveals Its New National Security Strategy: Climate Change, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Posted by M. C. on October 14, 2022

The inmates have taken over the ideological asylum.

Jordan Schachtel

The Biden Administration released its first National Security Strategy (NSS) document Wednesday, and it is exponentially more unhinged than any of its predecessors. The NSS was once understood as a serious document compiling a list of *actual* threats to the nation. It now resembles a hyper-political Blue Anon fundraising mailer.

Most of the items discussed in the supposed threat assessment have nothing to do with national security at all. And the things that are related to national security matters have major prioritization and politicization issues.

Biden Harris Administrations National Security Strategy 10
562KB ∙ PDF File
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Prior to launching The Dossier, your humble correspondent was a somewhat seasoned national security correspondent. As a periodic consumer of these strategy documents, I can assure you that not even the Obama Administration inserted its political agenda as aggressively as the Biden regime is choosing to do this year.

A simple word search gives the reader a sense of the White House’s priorities.

Russia takes top billing. It is referred to 71 times, in the most hysterical way imaginable. According to Team Biden, Putin is a war criminal, whose armies entered Ukraine for no reason whatsoever other than to impose carnage upon Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Speaking of Ukraine, the memo discusses Ukraine 33 times.

China, on the other hand, only gets 14 mentions, and the CCP is likened to a friendly competitor, like a mere player on the other side of a chess game. Here’s a graph from the China section:

“While we have profound differences with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Government, those differences are between governments and systems – not between our people. Ties of family and friendship continue to connect the American and the Chinese people. We deeply respect their achievements, their history, and their culture. Racism and hate have no place in a nation built by generations of immigrants to fulfill the promise of opportunity for all. And we intend to work together to solve issues that matter most to the people of both countries.”

Other than Putin, the number one “national security” priority of this administration is Climate Change, which is referenced 63 times in the National Security StrategyMoreover, the importance of the energy “transition” away from reliable energy resources is referred to 11 times in the document.

Read the Whole Article

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Meet Our Satanist Monkeypox Czar

Posted by M. C. on September 10, 2022

Diversity, Inclusion, Equity or D.I E.

BY PORTFOLIO ARMOR

White House monkeypox coordinator Demetre Daskalakis
White House monkeypox coordinator Demetre Daskalakis

Submitted by Portfolio Armor:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-09-09/meet-our-satanist-monkeypox-czar

Another Eclectic Hire

Readers may recall the rather non-traditional individual appointed by President Biden to handle America’s nuclear waste, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Sam Brinton.

Secretary Brinton now has a similarly eclectic colleague in the Administration, White House Monkeypox Coordinator Demetre Daskalakis.

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Watch “The Problem With Enforcing Equity” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on July 9, 2022

https://youtube.com/shorts/9YESjszoGkU?feature=share

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Princes Kept the View

Posted by M. C. on June 22, 2022

By Tim Hartnett

In November 1919 The Basic Problem of Democracyran in The Atlantic magazine. It is 12 pages long and covers a lot of ground. The descriptions of media strengths and inadequacies are 100% applicable to what transpires in that industry at the present moment. The conclusion is this: “No man has ever thought out an absolute or a universal ideal in politics, for the simple reason that nobody knows enough, or can know enough, to do it.” The piece goes on to say of the “average American” “the more cocksure he is, the more certainly is he the victim of some propaganda.” Yeats told us the best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity two years later. If you’d like to see the examples, just click onto any channel purporting to offer non-fiction coverage of daily events.

MCViewpoint comment -Michael D. Bradbury, the District Attorney of Ventura County, conducted an investigation into the raid and the aftermath, issuing a report on the events leading up to and on October 2, 1992.[1] He concluded that asset forfeiture was a motive for the raid.[9] Wikipedia

Asset forfeiture-Legalized government cop theft.

It’s in the name of equity and inclusion that American nobility is reinstituting a caste system. How you gonna’ save the world if you can’t look down on guys who turn wrenches, shift gears in semis, raise roofs and keep everybody from freezing to death?

A PR knighthood known as Unfake News is charged with the tasks of canonization, hagiography, sycophancy, sanctimony and the gushing phony emotion necessary to keep uppity ingrates in their places. The 4th Estate’s own placement in the hierarchy has mysteriously climbed from the gin mill to the penthouse in the process.

From way up there they don’t hear or see what’s going on down at street level all too well. Whatever that little man they view through a telescope is saying sounds like lese-majeste —or worse– from high elevations.

Giving the masses any say-so over newsy priorities would fog up pince-nez, induce elite heart palpitation, upend the Cristal and generally wreak havoc during otherwise placid high-brow soirees. The suggestion of giving ear to peasant plaints was tossed around recently during an exclusive function at the South Hampton estate of matriarch Phyllis Pruitt. The cigarette holder dropped from her mouth. “Gadzooks,” the hostess erupted, “not in front of the help!”

You might expect the swells to rely on cops to keep the rabble at bay with tensions amped up to levels we’ve reached nowadays. But the powers that be won’t be caught winking at the maxim of Inspector Alexander Williams. He’s the NYPD constable who told us: “There is more law at the end of a policeman’s nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court” in the post-Civil war era. However clueless ruling class minions sound over the airwaves — the keepers feeding them are never that transparent. Turmoil on Main Street, they’ve ruled, keeps the maid, the butler and the chauffeur at beck and call in luxurious lairs. The pecking order in manorial estates is a vital element in the sacrificial crusade to unshackle the oppressed.

The ebb in crime rates that lasted a quarter century is suddenly a threat to the goals of utopians everywhere. What was ignored as violence abated — and before that — proves awkward to news manufacturers if we peruse the record. Inconsistencies, abrupt editorial U-turns and trendy compliance with emotional tides are evident. Our informers are quite capable of turning a rigidly un-Samaritanical blind eye when it’s hiply convenient — but the details keep oozing back out of the memory hole.  Should anyone believe that altruistic motives are behind the new improved media focus on law enforcement?

When it comes to agents of the state placing cavalier valuation on human life our professional informers might have some splainin’ to do. There’s no doubt that the communication revolution has put the matter before us in ways never possible only 20 years ago. But don’t reporters, social scientists and concerned academicians claim to man the watchtowers? Where were they then? Are we to believe police unaccountability and extra-legal treatment in confronting the public are recent developments?

A mass media that has always found some victims of unwarranted violence more worthy of coverage — whether at the hands of credentialed reps of government or other violent criminals— than others, provides convincing evidence of a caste system in place. Just who is, and is not, given front page memorials in daily copy shifts with popular passion. The literary shiftlessness of the literati doesn’t account for the hairpin turns in editorial precedence entirely.

No camera filmed the murder of Donald Scott. But he was — without any doubt — a privileged white man. It didn’t save him from the deadly consequences of deranged statist priorities 30 years ago. The cops, and agents of Federal government, who executed him never went into the dock. They publicly made the claim — contrary to all evidence physical or testimonial — that the victim was fully deserving of his fate. Major media of the time did not make a national cause célèbre out of the matter. Yet, there is no dispute from any quarter — other than that of those who slaughtered the poor rich guy — that Scott lost his life through a coordinated government plot to steal his land.

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BREAKING: Jordan Peterson resigns from full professorship position at U of Toronto | The Post Millennial

Posted by M. C. on January 20, 2022

Peterson says his white male students are likely going to be unable to find work in their fields despite being highly qualified.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-jordan-peterson-resigns-from-full-professorship-position-at-u-of-toronto

Dr. Jordan Peterson has resigned from his tenured post at the University of Toronto. The reason for the resignation is that “the appalling ideology of diversity, inclusion is demolishing education and business.”

In an essay in the National Post, Peterson details his reasons. He said that he “loved” his job, and had a good rapport with students. While he states that he “can now teach many more people and with less interference online,” additional reasons include:

His white male students are likely going to be unable to find work in their fields, despite being highly qualified which Peterson wrote is “partly because of Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity mandates.” Peterson, who calls this “DIE” as opposed to the DEI that is commonly seen, said that these dictates, as well as the fact that he is an “academic persona non grata” make it difficult to try and education students while knowing “their employment prospects to be minimal”.

Peterson believes that these “DIE” initiatives will create “a generation of researchers utterly unqualified for the job. And we’ve seen what that means already in the horrible grievance studies “disciplines.” That, combined with the death of objective testing, has compromised the universities so badly that it can hardly be overstated. And what happens in the universities eventually colours everything.”

DIE initiatives, he writes, lead to students and researchers alike lying to get grants. “All my craven colleagues must craft DIE statements to obtain a research grant. They all lie (excepting the minority of true believers) and they teach their students to do the same. And they do it constantly, with various rationalizations and justifications, further corrupting what is already a stunningly corrupt enterprise,” he writes.

He takes aim at Canadian academic regulations, gender ideology legislation, and the identitarian ethos as a whole.

“We are now at the point where race, ethnicity, ‘gender,’ or sexual preference is first, accepted as the fundamental characteristic defining each person (just as the radical leftists were hoping) and second, is now treated as the most important qualification for study, research and employment,” he writes.

“Need I point out that this is insane?”

“And it’s not just the universities. And the professional colleges. And Hollywood. And the corporate world,” he goes on to say in the National Post.

He calls out colleagues who tolerate this, and anyone else who goes along with these “insane” dictates to get along. For Peterson’s part, he’ll have no more of it.

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Dumb Ideas Never Die – Gold Goats ‘n Guns

Posted by M. C. on November 3, 2021

The wealth tax failed this time because its mechanics were too dumb.  That’s what you get when you let Sen. B.S. (obsessed with millionaires and billionaires) and noted Native American Sen. Elizabeth Warren write tax policy.

https://tomluongo.me/2021/11/02/dumb-ideas-never-die/

Author: Dexter K. White

If you think the wealth tax is already in the rearview mirror, keep your eyes on the road.  The beta test is over, but that was just the nose in the tent phase.

Democrats knowledge of wealth is like the old saying about pornography, they know it when they see it (or in Hunter Biden’s case, when they film it).

But unlike porn, they don’t know where it comes from.  Also unlike porn, they know wealth has to be destroyed.

Because wealth is the thing that negates what they call equity.  Egalitarianism wasn’t enough.  Now we need equal outcomes where each player’s deficits are boosted to make results the same.

What better way to make the rich pay their “fair share” than by seizing the wealth they obviously must have stolen?  And using that to even the playing field?

It’s notable that instead of going after the two-and-twenty of the carried interest set, the Democrats sought a mark-to-market tax on equities (a tax on unrealized gains).  It was explained as a way to collect capital gains taxes earlier, in order to fund their hyperspend agenda.  But it was really a way to collect estate taxes early, as it was structurally designed to force the sale of assets and to destroy wealth.

The wealth tax failed this time because its mechanics were too dumb.  That’s what you get when you let Sen. B.S. (obsessed with millionaires and billionaires) and noted Native American Sen. Elizabeth Warren write tax policy.

People asked:

What happens when the market declines?  Does the government cut everyone a check?  

How is something non-fungible like a piece of real estate valued?  Works of art? 

What if someone only has one non-financial asset that makes them wealthy?  

Do they have to sell it to pay the tax?  Take out loans?

This time they couldn’t answer any of those questions.  But the details don’t matter, the target does.

See the rest here

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Watch “Minnesota 4th Graders Are Told NOT To Tell Their Parents About ‘Equity’ Survey #Shorts” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on July 28, 2021

https://youtu.be/DdZH4qDxFwM

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