I was having a discussion earlier about gender rating which is the practice of taking gender into account when determining health insurance premiums. Apparently women actually do cost more to insure and pay more than men for identical plans. States are beginning to crack down on this which I am sure will expand nation wide soon enough especially with the ACA now coming into effect.
Essentially I said this was stupid because there are economic reasons for this, not purely sexist reasons. For example, women live longer on average which adds considerable financial strain to the system during probably the most medically expensive times of their lives. But all I kept hearing from the other party was that this was discrimination, this was discrimination, this was discrimination. And I couldn't understand how this was discrimination and why it was being viewed as such a bad thing other than someone unhappy that they had to pay more.
Then she brought to my attention that the word discrimination applies to any sort of recognition of differences between two groups.
This really pisses me off because I have always thought of discrimination as having a negative connotation because there was some sort of illogical reason, or no real reason at all for the discrimination. It is definitely used that way by the media and by the majority of people. In reality though, it is any sort of recognition of differences.
So I guess this means that any sort of recognition of differences between two people is a bad thing? Why shouldn't I view certain other people as different, and not like me? Why is it only okay to view everybody as equal? I would rather put a bullet through my head than live in a world where everyone is "equal".
Any thoughts?
Essentially I said this was stupid because there are economic reasons for this, not purely sexist reasons. For example, women live longer on average which adds considerable financial strain to the system during probably the most medically expensive times of their lives. But all I kept hearing from the other party was that this was discrimination, this was discrimination, this was discrimination. And I couldn't understand how this was discrimination and why it was being viewed as such a bad thing other than someone unhappy that they had to pay more.
Then she brought to my attention that the word discrimination applies to any sort of recognition of differences between two groups.
This really pisses me off because I have always thought of discrimination as having a negative connotation because there was some sort of illogical reason, or no real reason at all for the discrimination. It is definitely used that way by the media and by the majority of people. In reality though, it is any sort of recognition of differences.
So I guess this means that any sort of recognition of differences between two people is a bad thing? Why shouldn't I view certain other people as different, and not like me? Why is it only okay to view everybody as equal? I would rather put a bullet through my head than live in a world where everyone is "equal".
Any thoughts?
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