Capitalism, What a Beautiful Choice
You know what the big takeaway was from this week’s past controversy over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)?
No, it wasn’t the adage “it’s not what it is, it’s what it looks like.” Nor was it “be careful what you pray for, you just might get it.” No, the big lesson from this week’s RFRA controversy was that “money talks and b********* walks.” (My uncle taught me that.)
To translate that into something less urban that basically means that when you want to get somebody’s attention, start messing with their money. Or to put it in a more positive light, capitalism can be the cure for what ails us.
There were examples of this all over Indianapolis, Gen Con, Angie’s List, SalesForce, the NCAA; a lot of big names were expressing their concerns over what they thought the potential discriminatory impact of RFRA could be. I know, this is where you say RFRA didn’t allow for discrimination and this is where I remind you of my first adage. Enough people made enough noise about what they would do with their money if something wasn’t done about RFRA, lawmakers heard the message loud and clear and started down the road of fixing the problem.
And it wasn’t just the RFRA opponents who took advantage of capitalism. Remember the story about the pizza place in Walkerton, IN whose owner said they would not cater a gay wedding because it violated their religious beliefs. (Granted I don’t know any self-respecting couple, gay or straight that would do that, but I digress). Well a bunch of people got mad and the owners had to close the place down. Then a bunch of people got mad at the bunch of people who got mad at the pizzeria and started a GoFund Me campaign, and as I write this post, they’ve raised $800,000 for the owners. Once again folks, the magic of capitalism.
Now does this mean we can scrape all anti-discrimination laws, of course not. And I don’t have a problem adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s civil rights code. But if there’s one thing this experience should have taught us, when you can talk crazy all you want, but when you start, as my Uncle used to say, “messing with other folks’ money, it’s about to get deep and it’s about to get real.”
