(June 5, 2018 at 10:46 am)polymath257 Wrote:(June 5, 2018 at 8:52 am)johan Wrote: Businesses should be free to refuse to serve anyone they choose. Likewise the public should be free to refuse to patronize those businesses.
So, were the lunch counter owners in the South during the 50's and 60's free to deny service to blacks?
The marketplace in the South was distorted by prejudicial government restrictions on public facilities and businesses. It could be that the absence of state laws restricting the liberties of blacks and those who would serve them would have allowed the free market to properly favor businesses that served a wider clientele. But we will never know.
<insert profound quote here>