Introduction
Regents
of the University of California v. Bakke was a case decided in 1978. The main
argument was based on affirmative action and should a university have a
requirement to admit a certain number of black students compared to the overall
student population. For example, if there are 100 spots then 90 of those spots
can go to white students but those remaining 10 spots must go to a black
student. However, Allan Bakke, a thirty-five-year-old white man had applied to
the university twice and had not been accepted, Bakke then argued this was
unconstitutional under the 14th amendment because he was not being accepted
because he was white and not given a fair opportunity. During our mock trial,
we made many different points defending the Regents of the University of
California such as Bakke could have made it into any other medical school and
how after years of mistreatment it is owed to minorities to have this admission
requirement to bridge the educational gap that can still even be seen today.
However below I’ve included my argument from an economic standpoint.
Affirmative Action from an economic standpoint
As an employer would you hire
me with no college education?
As
an employer would you hire me with no high school education?
For
most employers, someone without a college education would be turned away in
favor of someone with a higher education. However, during the 1970s only 22%
percent of African Americans had completed one year of college compared to the
40% of white people that had completed college.
To
put the situation into perspective with no education higher than college you
expect to work at a minimum wage job at Mcdonald's or Walmart, but during the
1970 minimum wage was 1.60 an hour. This made your annual income about $3,328
per year but this amount is well below the cost of living during the time for a
person living on their own. These numbers do not factor in the cost of living
for a family or the cost of living for a single-parent household. So, while not
earning enough to support yourself or your family you turn to government
assistance to help you get food, medical assistance, and housing. The more
people need government assistance the more our economy as a whole goes down.
This entire cycle all goes back to your job application being turned down to
your lack of education.
With this situation in mind
getting rid of affirmative action would cripple us economically. affirmative action
attempts to even out the playing field in terms of education, which also
evens out the playing field in terms of jobs. If we were to get rid of
affirmative action, we would continue to see a small number of African American
people uneducated. Accounting for only black people this means only 22% of
22,000,000 people would earn at least one year of a college education. Representing
78% of those people would end up earning a minimum wage and possibly needing
government assistance. By getting rid of affirmative action, we risk having 78% of 22,000,000 people needing government assistance.
After years of slavery,
separate but equal laws, and unjust treatment as a government we have been
constantly attempting to cripple African Americans socially, educationally, and
most importantly economically. This has been done to protect pride, hierarchy,
and the silly belief of white supremacy. However, if we hinder 22,000,000
people it still hurts the whole no matter how supreme some people may think
they are. The failing economy that peoples like to complain about is
self-inflicted because we refuse to help a group of people because of bias.
Imagine if 22,000,000 people were able to attend at least one year of college.
We would have fewer people relying on government assistance, more people
investing in houses or stocks, more consumers buying luxuries instead of
necessities to get by, and an increase in doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs.
In closing with affirmative action, we can only help the economy grow by having more people with higher education with the ability to earn higher-paying jobs meaning people would be able to afford luxuries instead of just necessities that would then contribute back to our economy.
Additional Links
https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/c.php?g=672281&p=4734237
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1971/dec/pc-v2.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23263010?seq=10#metadata_info_tab_contents
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