[lbo-talk] The wretched Gary Becker is dead

[michael yates]

The wretched, reactionary economist, Gary Becker, has died. In his first book about the economics of discrimination, he described racist employers as having a "taste for discrimination." Just like you might have a "taste for pancakes." Those who had such a taste were, he argued, willing to accept lower profits to indulge it. That is, other things equal, employers would only hire black workers who were as productive as white workers if the black laborers would accept a lower wage.