What exactly is discrimination?

stormybadger6 said:.. look at it this way: you could travel the entire globe, survive being held captive, escape from confinement, master the art of jungle survival, summit the Himalayas, hunt mosquitoes, swim alongside penguins, pick up every local dialect from Cambodia to Guinea, marry women from all walks of life half a dozen times, divorce just as often, raise children, adopt, or even run for Congress or become a tribal leader...
all of those experiences will certainly benefit you, but your employer for a specific role with set requirements—including specific educational credentials on a formal level (which matters because you are signing a legal contract)—will find that your vast, lifetime experience carries absolutely no weight during the hiring process!!

Once you are eventually hired based on those contractual parameters, however, you will be able to use that real-world expertise to effortlessly show them who is truly in charge.. 😉

what does any of that have to do with the concept of discrimination? I was asking for an explanation of why it *isn't* discrimination, not for reasons to justify it

I'm just trying to point out that discrimination, if you look at it in its broadest possible sense, isn't necessarily illegal or even a bad thing. I guess you could say the whole way the world is structured is based on this kind of differentiation. Every single criterion we use inherently involves some level of discrimination

Paul Jones7 said:what does any of that have to do with the concept of discrimination? I was asking for an explanation of why it *isn't* discrimination, not for reasons to justify it

I'm just trying to point out that discrimination, if you look at it in its broadest possible sense, isn't necessarily illegal or even a bad thing. I guess you could say the whole way the world is structured is based on this kind of differentiation. Every single criterion we use inherently involves some level of discrimination

... you haven't quite grasped the essence of my response at all...
I was specifically referring to the part that was bolded on that, and I really don't feel like repeating the same examples. Look, if an employer requires a specific degree, that isn't discrimination; it's simply a job requirement for the position being offered—and since anyone can technically pursue that education, the opportunity remains open to everyone. That is perfectly standard practice.
However, when it comes to requiring years of professional experience, that *is* discrimination. To put it more precisely, it is what we call "adverse selection"—an intentional exclusion. In a competitive market, it is nearly impossible for someone fresh out of college to find work because those requirements are practically unreachable for them. (A job isn't necessarily something that is available to every single person on earth...)
In other words, these roles are essentially reserved for a select few!
That, in my view, is discrimination.

stormybadger6 said:... you haven't quite grasped the essence of my response at all...
I was specifically referring to the part that was bolded on that, and I really don't feel like repeating the same examples. Look, if an employer requires a specific degree, that isn't discrimination; it's simply a job requirement for the position being offered—and since anyone can technically pursue that education, the opportunity remains open to everyone. That is perfectly standard practice.
However, when it comes to requiring years of professional experience, that *is* discrimination. To put it more precisely, it is what we call "adverse selection"—an intentional exclusion. In a competitive market, it is nearly impossible for someone fresh out of college to find work because those requirements are practically unreachable for them. (A job isn't necessarily something that is available to every single person on earth...)
In other words, these roles are essentially reserved for a select few!
That, in my view, is discrimination.

But I asked you why that wouldn't count as discrimination, and you didn't actually answer me.

I mean, if an employer has the right to demand a certain level of schooling, why wouldn't they also have the right to ask for experience? Both of those things end up being reserved for a chosen group; the only real difference is that there's just less of the second thing available on the market.