A few weeks ago, at the Faith and Freedom's "Road to Majority" conference, former Pennsylvania Senator and one time Presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that conservatives were loosing the battle over gay marriage because they were not doing a good job of explaining how traditional marriage is good for business and good for the economy. The implication was that gay marriage is bad for business and bad for the economy. C-Span Video
Conservatives like Santorum routinely hold themselves out as experts on business. They believe that their unquestioning belief in Adam Smith renders them experts on economic matters. But are they? What do real businesses actually think about gay marriage?
Last year, as the Supreme Court considered two cases dealing with gay marriage a number of major corporations submitted friend of court briefs in support of marriage equality. The companies included Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, Walt Disney, Marriott, and Citigroup, among others. The briefs can be found here.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, over 60% of Fortune 500 companies support domestic partner benefits for their employees, and 91% prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. See, HRC Fortune 500. (While not a direct endorsement of marriage equality, these positions indicate a strong belief in tolerance.)
Major corporations do these things, not because of some weak-kneed liberalism or out of fear that they'll be accused of not being politically correct. They do these things because they are good for business.
Companies know that they need to sell their goods and services to everyone to make money. In today's highly competitive economic marketplace companies know that they can't ignore any potential market. They have found that the best way to compete in every market is to have employees that reflect every possible market. So they actively recruit potential employees from every potential market, and once this diverse workforce is hired, these companies work hard to retain and promote those employees. Make no mistake, diversity is good for business. Tolerance is good for business and good for the economy.
How do we know that tolerance is good for the economy? Because we know that intolerance is bad for the economy. The experience of the South is evidence of this. The Southern economy improved significantly after the civil rights movement. This was because blacks were able to participate in the economy. It was also because many segments of society no longer spent time and money on discrimination. They were able to redirect that effort to economically productive activities. This is the lesson of a recent book "Sharing the Prize: The Economy of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South," by Gavin Wright. The book provides detailed statistical analysis to show that the southern economy improved significantly as a result of the civil rights movement. See my brief review, with a link to buy the book: The Cost of Discrimination.
I discuss these issues in more detail on my blog:
Tolerance is Good for the Economy
The Market has Spoken (Tolerance is good for Business)