DISCRIMINATION HAS BEEN TREATED BY LARGE PARTS OF THE academic community as though it were not amenable to logical analysis, be it economic, ethical, or political; as though the very consideration of alternative viewpoints were somehow unsavory. The philosophy of “feminism,” “human rights,” “multiculturalism,” and “political correctness” has so permeated intellectual discussion that criticisms of the mainstream view take on an aura of illegitimacy at the outset, even before arguments are heard in their behalf.

IN 1961, PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ESTABLISHED A PROGRAM of “affirmative action” with the declaration of Executive Order 10925.

WHY MIGHT INSURANCE COMPANIES CHARGE HIGHER RATES TO urban residents? Why might city dwellers be less likely to receive loans than their suburban counterparts? Cities are often populated with a higher percentage of minorities, so one hypothesis is that bankers and insurers are engaging in discrimination. Another hypothesis, however, is that insurers and lenders make business decisions based on the drive for profits, rather than discrimination.

IT SEEMS AS THOUGH EVERYONE KNOWS THAT WOMEN GET PAID less than men. However, as this section shows, it’s only true that some women get paid less than men. It is important to understand which women get paid less, and why. As it turns out, there are good reasons for the difference.

WELCOME TO THE SEMINAR ON RACISM AND SEXISM. (LAUGHTER). I’m not kidding. That is the title of the seminar, and it is an accurate one. It might sound funny but it is really very serious. This is because the critics of capitalism accuse the market of being in bed with or intimately connected to racism and sexism. They think that deep within the bowels of free-market economics is prejudice against blacks, women, homosexuals, whomever. This charge needs to be considered very carefully, to be dealt with, because it is very serious.

TORONTO (CP) WOMEN WHO WANT TO EARN AS MUCH AS MEN should stay single, says a new study released by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.

Single working women in Canada are paid, on the average, 99.2 percent of the salaries of their unmarried male counterparts, says the study released this week from the institute, a research organization that promotes the idea that the market should function freely.

THE FEMINIST MOVE FOR EQUAL PAY IS DEAD FROM THE NECK up. To be sure, legislatures are even now enacting this idea into law. But as the evidence continues to pile up, its intellectual foundation is crumbling.

The first nail in the coffin is that there is no wage gap between males and females. That ballyhooed statistic that says women’s pay is only 64 percent of men’s stems almost entirely from the asymmetrical effects of marital status. Marriage enhances the husband’s income and reduces that of the wife.

IN MY COMMENTARY ARTICLE, “DEBUNKING THE MYTHICAL GAP” (The Financial Post, March 9), I criticized the much-publicized feminist claim that the female-male earnings ratio of 64 percent stems from male, employer, and/or sexist discrimination.

I gave theoretical economic reasons and statistical evidence in support of an alternative hypothesis: namely, that this shortfall is almost entirely the result of the asymmetric effects of marriage on male and female incomes.

AT THE RISK OF BECOMING TIRESOME, I SIMPLY HAVE TO RESPOND once more to Walter Block. To recap for those who are not regular readers, Block wrote a piece in The Financial Post on March 9, in which he stated that the wage gap between men and women, most often described by saying that women earn only 64 percent of what men earn, is a myth.