Why free markets are better than quotas for achieving "diversity"

I have a co-worker/friend at Jukt Micronics that I'm going to call "Jim". 
Jim is gay. 
He's not political about it, he doesn't go to the bars, and he doesn't crusade. It doesn't matter either way, and long-time readers of this site know that I don't care.
 
Jim just got one heck of a promotion.  He's been elevated into the stratosphere of the Jukt Micronics sales department where he'll be taking care of what'll soon be Canada's #1 retailer, if it isn't already.

Jim wasn't given this job to fill a quota, or to show off how "diverse" we are.  Jim did a heck of a job when he was running Customer Service, and if we hadn't hired and promoted him, someone else would've hired him and possibly made a lot of money with him selling to Canada's #1 retailer.

Our #1 salesperson is usually a woman named....  Well, I dare not speak it.   We all fear her.  Competitors won't hire her, because they're afraid she'd take over.  One doesn't achieve the highest sales total every year by merely being quota-filler.  She has the highest sales by making heroic personal sacrifices, taking care of bidness, and squashing everyone else like a bug.   

Our plastic, wood and metal shop Production Managers are Black, Hispanic, and Black, respectively.  Dig down a little deeper and you'll find a Cambodian clear plastic supervisor, a Cambodian design supervisor, a Serbian wire shop supervisor, and another gaggle of bosses who all seem to be from the same neighborhood in Mexico.  My boss, the Operations V.P., is from Juarez. 

Our meetings sometimes look like the United Nations' break room.  Nobody planned it, nobody even wanted it.  The owners just started going for the best people they could afford, and that's what happened.

Compare my workplace to this....  It's from an article in City Journal by Heather MacDonald called "Multiculti U", about the insane expenses associated with "diversity" programs in the California college system.  Hit this link to read the whole thing. 

In September 2012, for instance, as the university system faced the threat of another $250 million in state funding cuts on top of the $1 billion lost since 2007, UC San Diego hired its first vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion. This new diversocrat would pull in a starting salary of $250,000, plus a relocation allowance of $60,000, a temporary housing allowance of $13,500, and the reimbursement of all moving expenses. (A pricey but appropriately “diverse” female-owned executive search firm had found this latest diversity accretion.) In May 2011, UCLA named a professional bureaucrat with a master’s degree in student-affairs administration as its first assistant dean for “campus climate,” tasked with “maintaining the campus as a safe, welcoming, respectful place,” in the words of UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor and dean of students. In December 2010, UC San Francisco appointed its first vice chancellor of diversity and outreach—with a starting salary of $270,000—to create a “diverse and inclusive environment,” announced UC San Francisco chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann. Each of these new posts is wildly redundant with the armies of diversity functionaries already larding UC’s bloated bureaucracy.

Good God in heaven, what a mess. 

Full disclosure:  Jukt Micronics isn't remotely "normal".  It's an insane place to work.  Hours are long.  It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  The first time I went to lunch with a plant manager, he warned me that "we are a screaming company".  And yet we've accidentally achieved a level of diversity that other places can't even dream of, and it didn't cost us a dime.  We made money doing it!!!   

Competition for employees, for raw materials, and for ideas has a way of cleansing and purifying things.  What if we had decided early on to not hire any ethnic or social minorities?  Who would it have hurt more, Jukt Micronics or the potential employees that we would've unwisely declined to hire?  I think it would've killed us. 

Read the entire Heather MacDonald piece if you get a chance.  And then try to decide which organization has the best approach to achieving diversity: California's college system, or a bunch of Texans who wanted to make the best display fixtures for the best price.

And congratulations, Jim!   

Elizabeth !! Warren !!!!! broke the color barrier at Harvard

Elizabeth !! Warren !!!!

You can hit the label at the bottom of this post to read more about the excitement, the bed-wetting ecstasy, the thrill, and the Why-Are-We-Allowed-To-Live-On-Her-Planet fawning and slobbering that surrounds Elizabeth !! Warren !!!!!

She's now running for the U.S. Senate, by God.  How long til the offers come in from Penthouse and Hustler? 

Seriously.  We're not worthy !!!!!!! 

Go here to read about a Fordham Law Review piece where Elizabeth !! Warren !!!! was described as Harvard Law's "first woman of color" !!!!!!!!

But open it in a new window, so you can have this Tim McGraw greatness playing in the background.  Crank it up for Elizabeth !!  Warren !!!!!!!!!!

And The Lion Shall Lie Down With The Lamb

In which Dr. Ralph and I hang out at a 4th of July parade....
Faces have been changed as a part of The Dr's witness protection program agreement.

On the subject of genuine diversity....

The Downside of Diversity

The Future Aggie wanted to play tennis last night, but I got home too late.
So guitars were brought forth.
Our friend and neighbor Amy came over and we sat on the deck and played and sang for about two hours.
We live in East Fort Worth, in what can only be called a "changing" neighborhood. I love it here.
I live on a corner lot and my neighbors, starting from the northeast, are (by minority status): black, gay, white, lesbian, black, hispanic, white, and a mixed race hardware couple (he works for Home Depot, she works for Lowe's.)

Amy and I realized that we were in a row of four adjoining homes that contain 1) a former Catholic priest, 2) a Baptist Youth Minister, 3) A protestant music minister, and 4) a newly ordained minister from the Universal Life Church - that's Amy. She did this so she could officiate at her friends' weddings.
Seven weiner dogs live within a block of each other. They live and bark harmoniously with the Black Labs and German shepherds.

The East Fort Worth / Meadowbrook neighborhood is a diverse place.

Our schools, public institutions, and politicians talk about "Diversity" like it's one of our most precious resources. Maybe it is.

But if that's the case, why do the most diverse neighborhoods get the worst city services? Fort Worth Weekly published a list of the problems a few weeks ago....I'm also saving it here, just in case the people at the FWeekly take the article down.

Here's my theory. If my neighborhood was comprised of 46-year old white guys who read a lot, voted the same way, did the same things socially, sent their kids to the same schools, and went to the same neighborhood churches, then we would have zero potholes on the East Side. We would see each other more often, form common bonds, and put group pressure on the city to take care of the potholes. (If you don't believe me, count the potholes near Tanglewood Elementary. It won't take long.)

Why would someone who rants about government spending gripe about the spending in HIS neighborhood? Well, there are things that only government can do - provide for roads, the common defense, provide police and fire protection, and deliver the mail. Ironically, with the exception of the fire department, those are the exact same areas where they do a crappy job on the East Side.

But since we're so diverse, we don't see each other except in the neighborhood front yards. We don't organize and raise hell about the city inadequately repairing the street in front of my house three times in twenty years just to get the money spent. The only thing we have in common is a zip code.

But we're diverse. And that's supposed to be good, at least according to our politicians who love to spread the "D" word over every possible sentence and document.

I wonder why they prefer diversity ? ? ?

Oh. I get it.