# Should private businesses be allowed to discriminate **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 8, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-private-businesses-be-allowed-to-discriminate/724529 "2015-07-08T00:03:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 9
**Author:** ![Construct](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Construct](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Construct)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-private-businesses-be-allowed-to-discriminate/724529/9 "2015-07-08T00:57:28Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > Yes, it is payback. For decades of mistreatment. I’d say your concern here is for the wrong people. I wouldn’t worry about that. Gay people already cost straight people about 100K (per gay person) in lifetime HIV costs. And thanks to Obamacare, those costs are born by the population at large—that is, straight people. > [@TriPolar](#): > > It depends on how private. Does your business need the public streets and sidewalks for it’s customers to get there? Is it a corporation? Is it a licensed, certified, or otherwise regulated business? Are you using that internet that I pay for in my phone bill? > > So if you can be so private that you are not consuming any extra public resources at all, then sure, discriminate to your heart’s content. You create an impossible dichotomy where any use of public resources, no matter how meager or inconsequential, gives progressives a right to enforce equal treatment of different groups. Most of those things you mention are either public goods provided by government wherein corporations pay their fair share (i.e. sidewalks paid for by property taxes and public streets paid for by gas taxes) or services paid for solely by the business itself (i.e. internet access is a private agreement between an ISP and a corporation, certification is paid for by the business in question). What’s more, this demon is one of progressive’s own creation; liberals support endless public spending projects and regulation of private enterprise, then turn heel and insist that this government involvement gives them the prerogative to further involve themselves in someone else’s affairs. > [@elbows](#): > > You willing to own it? > > Like post a sign that says We Choose not to serve, gays, blacks, Jews, or whatever? > > Because if you are, I’m pretty sure the free market will indeed solve the problem swiftly indeed. > > Of course most people might choose to discriminate against businesses that are being hateful to others. You okay with that discrimination? Or are you just looking to dish it out? Just as it is possible to support gay marriage without being gay, and possible to support the right to abortion without desiring abortions yourself, it is possible to support the right to discriminate without wanting to do so. It’s absolutely fine if the public chooses not to patronize businesses that discriminate. > [@running\_coach](#): > > Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it? > Of course, you don’t seem concerned about the persecution that lead up to it. Sure it is. But the fight isn’t over. In fact, it’s hardly even begun. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-private-businesses-be-allowed-to-discriminate/724529)._