But what does a reasonable cost-benefit analysis look like? Racists and bigots like Trump and Vance will never, ever mention any benefits from civil liberties laws. To them its only about bad impacts to white people. That is cynical, intentional deceit and irrational emotional manipulation by morally rotted MAGA demagoguery.
Here is some commentary about the benefits that Trump and MAGA elites love to ignore, and presumably deny if the benefits are shoved in their lying, authoritarian faces:
Civil rights legislation and DEI initiatives have generated substantial economic returns since the 1960s. Research demonstrates that reduced barriers to talent allocation, i.e., jobs for talented people previously blocked from good jobs by discrimination. That was enabled primarily by civil rights laws. By one analysis , those laws accounted for ~40% of U.S. GDP growth per person between 1960 and 2010. This translates to the improved allocation of talent among women and Black Americans contributing roughly 0.7 percentage points annually to GDP growth during this period. A 2019 analysis by economists commented :
When we view these facts through the lens of our general equilibrium model, we find that these shifts account for roughly two fifths of growth in U.S. market GDP per person between 1960 and 2010. They also account for most of the rise in labor force participation over the last five decades.
Other analysis indicates that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 alone narrowed the Black-white wage gap by 5.5% in covered jurisdictions. That accounted for about one-fifth of total wage gap narrowing between whites and Blacks. Companies with top-quartile gender diversity on executive teams had 25-39% higher profitability. Corporate and business ethnic diversity correlates with about a 35% greater likelihood of outperformance compared to peers. Diverse leadership teams generate 19% higher innovation revenues.
What about estimated cost-benefit ratios? Darned good question. There another question that arrogant, racist and bigoted MAGA liars will never mention. So, I'll mention it for them.
Economic Terms: The economic cost:benefit is estimated to be at least ~1:100 by one analysis. The improved talent allocation due to civil rights laws causing reduced discrimination suggests indicates a contribution of ~$1-1.5 trillion to GDP between 2019-2028 from reduced racial wealth gaps alone. Federal affirmative action programs also have outstanding positive return on investment impacts with minimal efficiency costs.
Human terms: Cost:benefit impacts of civil rights laws and DEI greatly exceed 1:10 . Human benefits include expanded educational access, reduced wage discrimination. Black male earnings increased from 55% to 80% of white earnings 1950-1980). Also, civil rights laws led to decreased mortality from reduced incarceration disparities, enhanced political participation, and improvement in intergenerational economic and social mobility. Of course, it is impossible to precisely quantify this. That said, the transformation from systematic exclusion (94% of doctors/lawyers were white men in 1960 versus 60% by 2010) is fundamental human dignity gain that rationally exceed costs by orders of magnitude, maybe 1:1,000.
How much of the benefits has Trump, Vance or other lying, deceiving elite MAGA blowhards mentioned? I suspect almost none or none at all. The goal of authoritarian MAGA demagoguery isn't to inform. It is intended to deceive and manipulate.
This is a prime example of why I trust absolutely nothing that Trump, Vance and other morally rotted MAGA elites say, unless there is solid evidence to believe otherwise. There is no good reason to believe lying liars and their morally rotted lies.
