Comment by zimablue | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zimablue | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

There's a much more rational way to try and account for that though- your parents income/wealth. That's what actually determines whether you are a leg up or a leg down, so if you're committed to this type of equality Index on that. Skin colour is a pretty insane proxy! There are poor white people too, and you can't assume they "deserve it because their family failed" it's insane. And your metaphor that it would somehow be justified to "disqualify" white people is bonkers. It's about as logically valid as an argument that we should "disqualify" black people- without slavery they wouldn't exist (butterfly effect), but assuming they did their median income would be that of eg. DRC. Slavery is a bad thing so we should "reverse" the effects right? We're NOT teams. I'm not on "team white" and anyone, regarding of race who thinks I'm on it is on the opposite team, because my actual team is my beliefs.

I don't think that's a bad idea, but it would be difficult to capture a wealth index as well. Do you measure their current income? Total lifetime income? How do you measure social wealth, education, or even capital? None of this is simple.

I'm not claiming that all implementations of affirmative action are perfect, but I think progress is being made in the right direction. I think that moving to a system that took income or class into account could be an improvement, but I haven't seen enough research to have a strong opinion here. Maybe you could point me to a few resources?

> And your metaphor that it would somehow be justified to "disqualify" white people is bonkers.

I think you're confused. I said "we can't", not "we should" or "it would be justified".

> We're NOT teams. I'm not on "team white" and anyone, regarding of race who thinks I'm on it is on the opposite team, because my actual team is my beliefs.

You're responding to words I haven't said. Of course we're not teams, I didn't suggest anything of the sort.

Almost perfect post but your beliefs don't matter. They may help you maintain sanity in a chaotic world. Otherwise, your beliefs only matter if you have enough money to bribe a senator.

Your actual team, at least the one that matters, is your class. If you have to punch a clock to survive, you're working class. If your money works for you, you're investment class.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com