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Review these ideas and then use the BACK key in your browser to go back to the page you were on.

Consider these cases:

1. Employer X discriminated against A because A is black. Should employer X be required to compensate A?
2. Employer X discriminated against blacks for years. Should employer X be required to compensate those persons directly AND indirectly harmed by his/her actions? If none of these people are around, should employer X be required to compensate other black applicants or employees?
3. Employer X did not discriminate, but everyone agrees that there has been widespread "societal" discrimination against blacks. Should employer X be required or allowed to compensate black applicants?

The four principles of compensation identified can all be applied to these three cases. You might think of other principles and other cases. As you might guess, political conservatives would compensate only in case #1. Moderates would compensate in cases #1 and #2. Liberals would compensate in all three cases and might use the concept of beneficiaries to support their view. The first approach is sometimes called "victim specific" compensation. The second might be called "victim substitution." The third involves compensation for what is sometimes called "societal" discrimination.