Guest Post by Jeff Thomas via International Man
A half-century ago, the US was the envy of the world – the Land of the Free, where virtually anyone could prosper, if he were willing to roll up his sleeves and work.
America was made great through the immigration of those who wished to pursue the American dream of “work = personal success.” It’s important for us to remember that those who were less ambitious remained in their homelands and helped their countries stagnate, whilst their worker-bee counterparts colonised America for generations.
An important lesson here: America was not built on immigration per se; it was built on immigrants with a strong work ethic.
Not so, today. Whilst there are certainly those who move to the US to pursue the original American dream, far more go there due to the promise of governmental largesse. Welfare, free health care, free education, etc., now attract those very same people that stayed behind in previous generations – those who made little or no contribution to the economy.
This, of course, degrades the economy itself, as citizens, new and old, are encouraged to consume entitlements rather than work.
Of course, the critical ingredient in the Land of the Free was the Free Market – the system under which individuals and companies had the ability to make their business decisions based upon what was most profitable.
The 1960s brought about increased racial enlightenment in the US, resulting in the growth of greater opportunities for minorities in the workforce. At about the same time, women were increasingly receiving better educations and were seeing greater opportunities as leaders in business.
Again, this was all a part of the free market. A free market will invariably benefit from those who are the most capable, regardless of race, gender or ethnicity.
What a free market does not thrive on is governmental force. Force is the antithesis of freedom, and the more force, the less the freedom, until, eventually, the free market collapses under the weight of governmental interference.
In recent decades, political correctness arrived on the scene. It has done a fair bit to degrade the free market in the US, but it should not be mis-defined as force. It has functioned through coercion. Coercion is not force, but it’s often a precursor of force.
Historically, whenever a coercive social trend can be firmly established, it’s likely, at some point, to morph into legislated force.
So, will “diversity” grow legs and become enforced under law?
Well, right on cue, the Illinois State Legislature has passed a bill that mandates that all publicly traded companies have a woman and an African American on their board of directors by 2021.
Of course, in the modern world, it’s quite common to see boards of directors with both women and minorities, so why would this be a problem?
Well, here we go back to that word, “force.” To force a board of directors to have a woman on it is clear gender discrimination. To force it to have an African American is clear racism. The law dictates gender discrimination and racism by forcing companies to make decisions based upon gender and race.
Just as Jim Crow laws sought to suppress individuals based upon race, Senate Bill 76 seeks to favour individuals based upon race.
And if the “one woman, one African American” on corporate boards smacks of legislated tokenism, it is not. In creating the legislation, committee members expressed the goal to increase the mandatory number of women on any board to half within a few years. This reveals that the objective is to control the entire board, based upon forced diversity.
And in order to make clear to corporations that the State has taken over the power to determine the makeup of boards, the fine for failure has been set at $300,000 per infraction.
As yet, there’s no demand as to broader political correctness on boards, but the passage of this bill invites lobbying by others seeking political correctness. It can therefore be expected that other minorities (Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, etc.) take their “rightful place” in corporate America. And the LGBT lobby can be expected to make their own demands for equality on company boards at some point.
Of course, natural diversity can only be healthy. The best and brightest, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation should always be sought by corporate boards. This ensures future profitability. The more diversity, the greater the scope of the board.
Again, the problem here is not diversity, it’s forced diversity. Forced diversity puts the emphasis on those aspects of an individual that are not related to ability or experience. That, in turn, increases the likelihood of business failure by forcing companies to regard political correctness more highly than businesslike choices. And in doing so, it additionally violates the property rights of the shareholders.
In diversity there is strength. In coerced or forced diversity there is weakness.
Is Illinois Bill 76 an announcement that corporate freedom in the US has come to an end? No, but it’s certainly more than just a symptom of a problematic future for American business. It’s one of many building blocks for a collectivist ideal – the concept that “Government must control the means of production.” In this regard, the bill is only one of many that are being passed.
Of course, it’s understood that a liberal government will lean toward collectivism and a conservative government should theoretically lean toward a free market. But this is not what we’re witnessing. Both principle political parties in the US are contributing to the move toward collectivism. The former liberal and conservative parties have morphed into the liberal and liberal-lite parties. As Judge Andrew Napolitano has said, the Democrat and Republican parties are merely “two wings of the same bird of prey.”
At this point, those who are hoping that, in the future, collectivist liberal-driven legislature will be countered by free-market conservative-driven legislature will be disappointed. The overall trend of legislation is firmly toward collectivism.
Roughly half of Americans will regard this new law as an advancement of cultural diversity. But corporate boards are not petting zoos, in which the objective is to collect one of every possible variety of people. An effective board is made up of the best and brightest regardless of similarities or differences.
The US is quickly moving away from that principle and, as such, will pay the price it has been paying for several decades, as productivity continues to exit the US. The country that was once the world’s greatest supplier of goods will, increasingly, fall under the domination of those countries that retain productivity as their central goal.
Editor’s Note: Economically, politically, and socially, the United States seems to be headed down a path that’s not only inconsistent with the founding principles of the country but accelerating quickly toward boundless decay.
It’s contributing to a growing wave of misguided socialist ideas.
That’s exactly why Doug Casey and his team just released this new video outlining what it’s all about and what comes next. Click here to watch it now.
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Illinois, you say. The expression ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ comes to mind. A state so deep in debt that its future is in serious doubt as resident leave to avoid the mandates of the legislature.
Corporations should relocate their headquarters en masse to show the pols that they don’t have the last word.
The last person to leave the state, please turn off the lights.
Mandated Affirmative Action for The Boardroom?
The last sane person leaving ILL – &- Noise should wipe really really good, flush twice, use as much Lysol spray as necessary to hide the awful stench, then turn out the lights and shut the door behind them. A sturdy padlock on the outside of the portal couldn’t hurt either.
“A sturdy padlock on the outside of the portal
couldn’t hurt either.”
Too right, P.
After the retarded Lefties completely crap up their
home states with these half-wit policies and ideas
to the point that they must flee the shitholes that
they created (e.g. Illinois, New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, California) and having
demonstrated the usual inability of the stupid to
actually learn anything from their mistakes,
they then bring that same moronic mindset
with them and proceed to crap up whichever
Red state that they fled to.
And as Orwell noted: they are accomplices, not victims.
I wonder where they plan to go after they crap up
the whole country.
Coercion is force.
co·er·cion- the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.
The article ignores the elephant in the room- that left to their own initiative, in most cases minorities and blacks in particular cannot measure up with the best and brightest. So they either force the lessers on the betters or the lessers have to be left complaining about their place in life.
Any company with two working brain cells among its people will be far out of the state by the time this takes effect.
One woman, one African-American, one shot, one kill per politician. Very good policy.
In America, hypocrisy is not a bug, it’s a feature.
I never thought I’d hear this coming from Doug Casey or any of his publications.
“In diversity there is strength”
What shite!
He’s a tick that’s fed off the gullible for 40 years.
We should repeal all the “affirmative action” laws. Let companies hire the best person for the job, not the best (insert here).
Let it be resolved: The President or Vice President must be a minority; there must always be a minority in the cockpit of a commercial airliner; the Head Coach or Assistant Coach must be a minority; the Bride or Groom must be a minority; every other Pope must be a minority….
You forgot to add that all commercial airline pilots should be blind people.
“An important lesson here: America was not built on immigration per se; it was built on immigrants with a strong work ethic.”
Just call them white people.
You said AC , my grandfather was sponsored at 16 by a cousin from Italy in 1918 . He worked his ass off , at night he stood in front of a mirror , listened to the radio and repeated phrases till he was fluent in English and American slang , pop culture of the time . Then he struck out as a welder on his own and created a truck body and fender repair shop that made his American Dream
He paid off the family home in Italy and gifted it to his sister and her family , paid for college for his children and died at 48 leaving his wife and her sisters supported till their deaths . Not once did a government tax payer program step in to help . He became a proud American citizen and would only speak Italian when absolutely necessary because he was an American !
I migrants had a work ethic because it was work or starve. Today, starve is not the alternative. Now it is work, or free shit. And free shit seems like a great option to picking watermelon in 110 degree heat.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.