An editorial in this morning's New York Times supports the idea of a new city law that would ban discrimination based on what the Times describes as "a person's expression of gender identity, self-image and appearance." The Times says the law would protect "People who have had sex-change surgery, cross-dressers and others whose gender identity does not conform to societal norms" against discrimination "in housing, employment and public accommodations."
We're surprised, frankly, that the Times wants to deal with this undeniably grave problem by passing a mere municipal ordinance. Why not a state or federal law, or even a Constitutional amendment? We wonder if the Times is prepared to apply the same standards prohibiting discrimination based on appearance to, say, the models the newspaper and its advertisers use in its fashion supplements. At least the Times editorial is refreshingly candid in this case about its lack of regard for "societal norms."
Al Gore, Socialist: A story in the national section of this morning's Times reports on Al Gore's increasingly strident attacks on the medicine industry. In an improvement, the Times today calls some of the pharmaceutical companies for comment. Mr. Gore's latest complaint seems to be that one company is spending more on advertising than on research, and that another company is charging more for the same medicine when used by humans than when prescribed by veterinarians for animals. Someone should tell the vice president that, under capitalism, the allocation of a private firm's resources between research and advertising is a matter for its management and shareholders to decide, not a matter that politicians should try to affect. There is no evidence that government will make that allocation more efficiently than the company's owners will. Someone should also tell the vice president that, under capitalism, companies are allowed to set their own prices for their products, and to discount those prices as they see fit. The medicine costs more for humans than for animals because the medicine company apparently figures that humans are willing to pay more for their own health than for the health of their animals. It's just another price variation, the way that airlines charge higher fares to go to Florida in the winter than in the summer, and the way that some movie theaters give senior citizens a discount. You might expect that when the presidential candidate of a major party is out on the campaign trail questioning the very assumptions of the economic system of the country he is running for president of, he'd get some tough treatment from the press on these matters. They could ask him, for instance, if there is any precedent in which the government successfully took over the pricing and spending decisions of a major industry during peacetime, as Mr. Gore is apparently proposing to do. But the Times seems lost on this issue. Its main response has been to consistently praise Mr. Gore for having a prescription drug "plan" and to just as consistently criticize George W. Bush for not having one.
Late Again: An article in the national section of this morning's Times reports on a new study of the effects of school vouchers on the standardized test scores of students in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Dayton, Ohio. The results of the study are old news to readers of The Washington Post, which reported them on page one of yesterday's editions. The Times story today doesn't cite The Washington Post article.