Similarly, quota supporters may argue that these programs are needed to alleviate the effects of past discrimination which has left many members of minority groups unqualified for positions they could otherwise have earned in free competition. In this case quotas do not solve the fundamental problem of insufficient qualifications, but ignore it. The fair and effective solution would be to establish a just system of hiring and admissions based on qualifications combined with efforts to find ways of improving the qualifications of those disadvantaged by past discrimination.

For reasons of justice, morality, effectiveness and practicality, therefore, quotas are wrong and misguided. Employers and admissions officers should establish race and sex-blind systems for selecting applicants. The goal in fighting racism should be the establishment of a fair process based on merit, without regard to race, sex, or ethnic group, instead of an end state with various percentages of racial and minority groups represented in jobs and schools.

Since individuals have the right to associate freely, however, the government is not justified in enforcing the merit criterion any more than it is justified in enforcing quotas. In a free society people should have the right to voluntarily establish private institutions run on any basis they may choose, as well as the right to hire whom they want, the right to form schools of whatever composition they desire, and the right to offer their productive services as widely or selectively as they wish. An opinion has already been expressed here concerning the principle on which they should base these associations, but if individuals have the right to run their own lives, then this principle should not be enforced by the government.

It is true that some people will not live their lives on the principles one thinks they should and that they will employ racist and sexist criteria in their associations with other people. The proper recourse in such an event is an attempt at persuasion, and ultimately a refusal to associate with such people. But in a free society, the ultimate decisions on how people live their lives should be left up to them. In the long run, freedom will extirpate all racist doctrines, which cannot survive without the support of coercive government power.

Quota systems should be replaced at Harvard with a fair process of selection for employment and admissions as described above, with equal opportunity for all. In addition, the Harvard community should support an end to governmentally imposed quotas elsewhere, oppose discrimination against minority group members where it persists, and offer help to those suffering the effects of past discrimination.

Those who wish to establish a fair and humane society should not begin by advocating unfair and inhumane programs which are counterproductive. People should be regarded as individuals standing on their own merit, rather than as members of races and minority groups. As a step in this direction, towards a fair and humane society, affirmative action quotas should be abolished.