"Imagine that general background social conditions in the United States are such that women will be disadvantaged in any male-run institution that doesn’t make a specific and deliberate effort to lean against that disadvantage."
June 21, 2011
In his response to the Supreme Court tossing out 5-4 the vast Walmart disparate impact discrimination lawsuit, Matthew Yglesias deftly threads the needle of placating feminists without actually embarrassing himself by positing:
Imagining is fun! What else should we imagine?
To imagine that Walmart discriminates against female employees is to imagine that it discriminates in favor of male employees, which is to imagine that Walmart, evidently a Big Softie famous for leaving money on the table, overpays for male employees.
But I don't have a big enough imagination to imagine that.