Slate is having a healthy, but incomplete, debate about the uproar about Brendan Eich’s resignation from Mozilla. Eich donated $1000 to the successful campaign to adopt “Proposition 8” in California in 2008. Prop 8, until it was struck down, banned marriage equality for gays. William Saletan published a satirical article suggesting that everyone be “purge[d]” who contributed to Prop 8.
Other columnists, such as Mark Stern, weighed in to remind readers about the cruelty of the often homophobic TV ad campaign used by Prop 8 supporters. Stern makes the point that much of the campaign was designed to picture gays as recruiting straight children. This column (eventually) discusses why Eich stepped down, but it begins by explaining why neoclassical economists have such a terrible track record in understanding discrimination and its remedies.
