4 ms·

I agree with your concerns as a whole, but maybe not your analysis of the accommodation. If the startup is merely a platform for connecting babysitters and par

I agree with your concerns as a whole, but maybe not your analysis of the accommodation. If the startup is merely a platform for connecting babysitters and parents, babysitters could choose whom they want to babysit. A babysitter who was not qualified to deal with a developmentally challenged kid or infant should not have to, and probably shouldn't.

geofft 10y ago
Hmmm. That idea is definitely appealing, but the "platform" argument has some serious negative side effects that I think the government should legitimately be able to regulate. What if babysitters of one race didn't want to sit babies of another race? Should they be forced to? This isn't a hypothetical example—Airbnb has this exact problem.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  > What if babysitters of one race didn't want to sit babies of another race? Should they be forced to? I have a hard time seeing where you think this is a tricky question. Let's imagine a terrible person, so terrible that there are no moral issues with just making them do whatever we want. We've got a racist white babysitter who hates black children. Fortunately, we know better than they do, so we're going to... shut black children up alone with them for long periods? What parents do you think want to hire babysitters who personally hate their children? Why would it be a good idea to facilitate that?
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    You're missing the option of "kick them off the platform entirely".
    - philh 10y ago
      Now suppose the supermajority of babysitters are racist. If they all leave the platform, it shuts down. Nobody gets a babysitter. If they all pretend not to be racist, you get black kids being looked after by closet racists. It's not obvious to me that this is better than the situation where babysitters are allowed to be racist, and black people have more trouble finding a babysitter than white people. There are certainly arguments that it's better, but I don't think it's a slam-dunk either way. Fortunately, we don't live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are racist. But we do live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are unable to accomodate developmentally-disabled teenagers. We can shut down the babysitting service, or we can make the service pretend to acccomodate DD teenagers while failing to actually take care of them. I'm not convinced that "force babysitting services to actually successfully accomodate DD teenagers" is even an option.
      - Dylan16807 10y ago
        > If they all leave the platform, it shuts down. If a platform can only sustain itself on the business of strong racists, maybe it should reconsider if it's doing good in the world. >Fortunately, we don't live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are racist. But we do live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are unable to accomodate developmentally-disabled teenagers. Being racist is discrimination, while not wanting to handle DD teenagers is because it's a totally different sort of job. I mean, a 10 year old with dyslexia is still getting a babysitter here. Because that's not a very different babysitting experience. The two situations don't make a good analogy because of that.
  - geofft 10y ago
    OK, maybe not babysitters in particular, but in general society seems to have decided that's the right thing to do. If you have a racist white chef, you force them to serve food to black people, even though they could poison it, spit in it, etc. If you have a racist white teacher, you force them to teach and discipline black schoolkids. If you have a racist white taxi driver, you shut black people alone with them in their car for long periods.

geofft 10y ago

Hmmm. That idea is definitely appealing, but the "platform" argument has some serious negative side effects that I think the government should legitimately be able to regulate. What if babysitters of one race didn't want to sit babies of another race? Should they be forced to? This isn't a hypothetical example—Airbnb has this exact problem.

thaumasiotes 10y ago
> What if babysitters of one race didn't want to sit babies of another race? Should they be forced to? I have a hard time seeing where you think this is a tricky question. Let's imagine a terrible person, so terrible that there are no moral issues with just making them do whatever we want. We've got a racist white babysitter who hates black children. Fortunately, we know better than they do, so we're going to... shut black children up alone with them for long periods? What parents do you think want to hire babysitters who personally hate their children? Why would it be a good idea to facilitate that?
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  You're missing the option of "kick them off the platform entirely".
  - philh 10y ago
    Now suppose the supermajority of babysitters are racist. If they all leave the platform, it shuts down. Nobody gets a babysitter. If they all pretend not to be racist, you get black kids being looked after by closet racists. It's not obvious to me that this is better than the situation where babysitters are allowed to be racist, and black people have more trouble finding a babysitter than white people. There are certainly arguments that it's better, but I don't think it's a slam-dunk either way. Fortunately, we don't live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are racist. But we do live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are unable to accomodate developmentally-disabled teenagers. We can shut down the babysitting service, or we can make the service pretend to acccomodate DD teenagers while failing to actually take care of them. I'm not convinced that "force babysitting services to actually successfully accomodate DD teenagers" is even an option.
    - Dylan16807 10y ago
      > If they all leave the platform, it shuts down. If a platform can only sustain itself on the business of strong racists, maybe it should reconsider if it's doing good in the world. >Fortunately, we don't live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are racist. But we do live in a world where the supermajority of babysitters are unable to accomodate developmentally-disabled teenagers. Being racist is discrimination, while not wanting to handle DD teenagers is because it's a totally different sort of job. I mean, a 10 year old with dyslexia is still getting a babysitter here. Because that's not a very different babysitting experience. The two situations don't make a good analogy because of that.
- geofft 10y ago
  OK, maybe not babysitters in particular, but in general society seems to have decided that's the right thing to do. If you have a racist white chef, you force them to serve food to black people, even though they could poison it, spit in it, etc. If you have a racist white teacher, you force them to teach and discipline black schoolkids. If you have a racist white taxi driver, you shut black people alone with them in their car for long periods.