Putting aside that "you took what I said out of context" is the lamest response in the history of responses, I'm fully aware of the dimension of your argument. I'm saying that A) I don't think you really know how banks decide to give out loans, and B) your concept of character factors is ridiculously narrow and changes with every post. Analyzing a person for the ability to pay back a loan (that being the example we're running with) involves tons of factors, and the whole reason they even talk to you instead of just handing you a questionaire is that statistics alone are not enough of a gauge. Statistics are just that; if women (for instance) are 85% reliable as a whole in paying back loans, that means there's 15% who aren't. Which is where other factors come into play, including plenty of factors you do have control over, and I reiterate my point that you simultaneous act like looking at one factor or another is a zero-sum game, and you keep picking different ones by different definitions.
So does that mean Banks should just not take gender into account because it's only relevant in 15% of cases?
Because that's what cow is trying to argue here; that gender should not be taken into account for decisions because a person has no control over their gender.
I know 'you're taking it out of context' is a poor response Aqizzar, but dear lord man,
you are. Everything i have said is in the context of responding to cow's point about discrimination and not taking things into account over which you as an individual have little or no control over, and is only relevant as such. Yes i know the process Banks go through to determine loans is far more complex than a mere gender analysis, but that is completely irrelevant as the only point that needs to be made is that gender is a valid statistic.
So any form of discrimination is kosher, as long as it's backed up by statistical analysis? Including discrimination based on (I'm just going down the US list of protected classes here) race, sexual orientation, religion, and disability?
So long as it is
relevant.
Setting car insurance rates based on gender is relevant, as gender has been shown to have a significant statistical impact on liklihood of crashing. Setting whether or not you can work at a McDonalds based on gender is not relevant, as gender has not been shown to have any impact on a person's ability to work at McDonalds.
Would you say it's discrimination against ugly people that only pretty people get to be fashion models?