Lee-cole, I can't really argue with anything you said there, but let me just note here that if we Southern Caucasian males continue to deny that our race and our gender have, for hundreds of years, given us a marked advantage in politics, in business, and in everyday life, we deserve to be considered "Neanderthals" by those who do recognize that simple fact.
The minority contractor effort does not give anybody an "advantage" in the process. It just encourages participation by those who, in the past, have declined to participate because they've been told, or they've come to understand through circumstances, that they don't have a snowball's chance in Hades of being successful in bidding on government projects.
I could elaborate on that, but I don't want to upset SSHM with "irrelevant analogies" (as in saying something like this is similar to youth sports league rules, where everybody gets to play, but nobody is guaranteed they'll start or win), and I certainly don't want to aggravate Hankey by talking about things that have actually happened in the past (as in my experience in dealing with minority contractors under CDBG and other Federal and state grant programs back in the 1990s - heaven knows I wouldn't want to confuse Hankey with actual facts and details of things that have actually happened.)
The minority contractor program we're discussing does two things: 1. It seeks to level the playing field by assuring minority business owners that, no matter what some local engineer or politico has told them in the past, they can bid, and they can get the contract if they turn in the lowest bid, and 2. As a result of (1), it encourages competition.
Lee, you know and I know that the more contractors who bid on a project, the more likely it is you'll get a good, low, fair price on the work (absent, of course, the invasive, punitive and outrageous requirements of the archaic Davis-Bacon Act, which we can discuss on another thread someday if you want to.)
I'm a conservative and a Republican, Lee. (Those two words are not always interchangeable, you know.) I'm not afraid of fair competition that may serve to save the taxpayers money. Are you?
