Invasion of Privacy - Don't say it never can happen.........

[Pat]

Yes, I can, as an individual. The company would probably have to fire me to avoid getting themselves sued, but I wouldn't be on the hook criminally or civilly.

Morality of course, is another issue.

IMHO, this is the only issue that should matter. Personally, I don't associate with people who discriminate based on the 'protected' items. That doesn't mean that I think it should be a legal issue.

So, put that in your pipe and smoke it on your way to defending your position in court.

[princewally]

So, put that in your pipe and smoke it on your way to defending your position in court.

I don't understand your point. I mention criminal/civil liability, and you bring up morality. I discuss morality, and you bring up criminal/civil liability.

My points:

1. As an individual(not as a business owner), I can legally discriminate freely, based on whatever criteria I wish. There is no law stating I have to spend time with, or grant special treatment to, any of the protected groups. Individuals are NOT legally bound by discrimination laws and they shouldn't be.

2. I don't associate with people who discriminate based on the 'protected' items. This is my choice.

These are the points I made, and I'm not sure which one(s) you are arguing with.

Discrimination based on color/nationality/gender/sexual orientation is almost always thoroughly disgusting. I wish people would be more open about it, so I can more easily choose not to associate with them.

Now, can you tell me what part you are arguing with? I hope you're not confusing a bald statement of fact(#1) with the idea that I am condoning that behavior(see #2).

[GregM]

I say: Let business owners discriminate all they want and deal with the consequences.

A company that places too many restrictions on its employees will lose employees. I mean, who wants to work for a company that tries to run your life? To keep employees, the company will either have to relax its policies or raise salaries. If they raise salaries, they will have to raise prices and risk losing customers. Even if they don't raise prices, the company will also suffer some bad press for its disciminatory practices (in places like this forum) and probably lose customers anyway.

Also, there is the problem of enforcing policies. Monitoring employee's behavior and going after "offenders" is a costly enterprise which increases overhead. Those costs either come out of profits or are passed on to the customer, which should encourage customers to take their business elsewhere.

[someone1980]

So the company is discriminating based on the total cost to the company. Fine, they want to lower their costs, and getting work done in America isn't particular cheap. If they are hiring people to do labor that doesn't require years of training they might end up running their business better. If on the other hand they do applied engineering and hiring talented people isn't their first priority, they are screwed. Or maybe there is a niche for low priced crap.

Let them run their business like they want as long as they are not defrauding people.

[1911fan]

When I was working for a national home builder, they had a new health care insurance company come in and bid for the business, They were able to show that a single guy who was 25 and smoked, by age 50 had already cost the company nearly 4 months in sick days, nearly 30K in paid out visits to Drs. and if you extended that out to age 60, the cost skyrocketed.

Smokers do not like to hear it, but smoking is by far the costliest single attribute (legal stuff, not counting meth or other illicit drugs) which is 100 percent controllable in the health care area. Far more costly than obesity, non exercise, bad diets etc. In some of the bigger companies, 40 percent of health care costs are smoking related. ( I do not have the cite, but it was a number tossed up during a discussion of the most recent GM/UAW contract negotiations on the NewsHour on PBS and no one contested that number) For many companies, the largest single cost beside wages is health insurance.