Labor economics - White collar discrimination from the movie "Philadelphia"

The film, "Philadelphia", is a classic example of employer discrimination in the work place. Blatant bigotry is the major theme of this movie. The film's antagonist is a young highly touted lawyer by the name of Andrew Beckett. Moreover, Andrew happens to be a homosexual stricken with the nondiscriminating AIDS virus. However, a person's sexual preference has nothing to do with an employee's productivity or merit in the work place. Unfortunately, in our society many …

…religion, sexual preference, or creed will eventually be pushed out of business. The firm will be pushed out for two reasons they will overpay for labor and they will hire the wrong amount of labor. "Firms that discriminate lose on two counts: they are hiring the "wrong color" of workers and/or they are hiring the wrong number of workers."(Borjas p362) All in all, this is good because it drives out the discriminating firms.