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==Seminar on Racism and Sexism==
==Seminar on Racism and Sexism==
The transcript of Block's Seminar on Racism and Sexism, given at [[Mises University]] in the summer of 2005, is included. Here, Block examines the sociobiological reasons why most Nobel prize winners, chess grandmasters, and heads of government tend to be men, arguing that individual men are relatively expendable from the standpoint of a society's reproductive capacity, and therefore evolution has tended to cause men's genes to be more given to extremely high or low quality than women's. He states that men are nature's crapshoot and women are nature's insurance policy. Research has lent this theory some empirical support.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-differences/201101/how-can-there-still-be-sex-difference-even-when-there-is|title=How Can There Still Be a Sex Difference, Even When There Is No Sex Difference?|author=Mills, Michael|date=26 January 2011|publisher=Psychology Today}}</ref>
The transcript of Block's Seminar on Racism and Sexism, given at [[Mises University]] in the summer of 2005, is included. Here, Block examines the sociobiological reasons why most Nobel prize winners, chess grandmasters, and heads of government &mdash; and also most prisoners, mental hospital inmates, and people who die at a a young age &mdash; tend to be men, arguing that individual men are relatively expendable from the standpoint of a society's reproductive capacity, and therefore evolution has tended to cause men's genes to be more given to extremely high or low quality than women's. He states that men are nature's crapshoot and women are nature's insurance policy. Research has lent this theory some empirical support.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-differences/201101/how-can-there-still-be-sex-difference-even-when-there-is|title=How Can There Still Be a Sex Difference, Even When There Is No Sex Difference?|author=Mills, Michael|date=26 January 2011|publisher=Psychology Today}}</ref>


Block points out that historically, wives have been more likely to move to accommodate their husbands' careers, rather than the other way around, because the wives' earning potential is often curtailed by the responsibilities of childrearing.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Case for Discrimination|author=Block, Walter|pages=169-170|chapter=Seminar on Racism and Sexism}}</ref> Studies tend to verify the existence of this phenomenon.<ref>{{cite news|title=Career couples fight over who's the 'trailing spouse'|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2008-06-26/living/lw.men.v.women.career_1_couples-career-job?_s=PM:LIVING|author=Jio, Sarah|date=26 June 2008|publisher=CNN}}</ref> The expandability of men is also a reason why men are more aggressive, according to Block. If it were a society's young women, rather than its young men, who mostly served as cannon fodder, the reproductive potential of that society would be greatly affected by any high casualty rates.
Block points out that historically, wives have been more likely to move to accommodate their husbands' careers, rather than the other way around, because the wives' earning potential is often curtailed by the responsibilities of childrearing.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Case for Discrimination|author=Block, Walter|pages=169-170|chapter=Seminar on Racism and Sexism}}</ref> Studies tend to verify the existence of this phenomenon.<ref>{{cite news|title=Career couples fight over who's the 'trailing spouse'|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2008-06-26/living/lw.men.v.women.career_1_couples-career-job?_s=PM:LIVING|author=Jio, Sarah|date=26 June 2008|publisher=CNN}}</ref> The expandability of men is also a reason why men are more aggressive, according to Block. If it were a society's young women, rather than its young men, who mostly served as cannon fodder, the reproductive potential of that society would be greatly affected by any high casualty rates.

Revision as of 15:46, 14 October 2012

The Case for Discrimination  
Author(s) Walter Block
Country United States
Subject(s) Political economy
Genre(s) Non-fiction
Publisher Ludwig von Mises Institute
Publication date 28 December 2010
Media type Print, Digital
Pages xi, 497 p.
ISBN 9781933550817
OCLC Number 784169074

The Case for Discrimination, by American economist Walter Block, and with an introduction by Lew Rockwell, is a book that both explains discrimination and encourages the government's allowing private sector actors to engage in it. It addresses subjects such as how the minimum wage laws harm racial minorities and how sexual harassment laws have failed to take into account that some women are willing to accept employment arrangements in which they are paid to allow men to make sexual advances toward them. He cites the example of those strippers whose customers use the giving of paper money to them as a pretext for getting close to them and making sexual overtures. Block points out as well that only the bisexual refrain from discriminating against one gender or the other in whom they are willing to have sex with.

Seminar on Racism and Sexism

The transcript of Block's Seminar on Racism and Sexism, given at Mises University in the summer of 2005, is included. Here, Block examines the sociobiological reasons why most Nobel prize winners, chess grandmasters, and heads of government — and also most prisoners, mental hospital inmates, and people who die at a a young age — tend to be men, arguing that individual men are relatively expendable from the standpoint of a society's reproductive capacity, and therefore evolution has tended to cause men's genes to be more given to extremely high or low quality than women's. He states that men are nature's crapshoot and women are nature's insurance policy. Research has lent this theory some empirical support.[1]

Block points out that historically, wives have been more likely to move to accommodate their husbands' careers, rather than the other way around, because the wives' earning potential is often curtailed by the responsibilities of childrearing.[2] Studies tend to verify the existence of this phenomenon.[3] The expandability of men is also a reason why men are more aggressive, according to Block. If it were a society's young women, rather than its young men, who mostly served as cannon fodder, the reproductive potential of that society would be greatly affected by any high casualty rates.

References

  1. Mills, Michael (26 January 2011). "How Can There Still Be a Sex Difference, Even When There Is No Sex Difference?". Psychology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-differences/201101/how-can-there-still-be-sex-difference-even-when-there-is. 
  2. Block, Walter. "Seminar on Racism and Sexism". The Case for Discrimination. pp. 169-170. 
  3. Jio, Sarah (26 June 2008). "Career couples fight over who's the 'trailing spouse'". CNN. 

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