5.4 People can discriminate

One of the most surprising consequences of the NDP is that it guarantees every person the freedom to do the exact opposite: to discriminate. The state cannot discriminate against people because of their preferences or the voluntary choices they make on the basis of those preferences. Under VoTa, every person has the right to act on their preferences, whatever they may be, provided they do not violate anyone else’s property rights. This includes the freedom to choose one’s trading partners, tenants, employees, customers, collaborators, and associates.

The freedom for people to discriminate is therefore a corollary of the NDP rather than an independent constitutional principle.

Claim:
The State shall not restrict individuals or private organisations from choosing to discriminate, except where the conduct independently violates the NAP or another constitutional rule.
Proof:
  1. The NDP prohibits the State from discriminating based on beliefs and preferences.
  2. A person's peaceful choice about whom to associate or trade with expresses their beliefs or preferences.
  3. State punishment of that choice would discriminate against the person based on those beliefs or preferences.
  4. The State may intervene only when the conduct independently violates the NAP or another constitutional rule.

Seen through the NDP, preventing people from being discriminatory is not non-discrimination. It is yet another form of discrimination by a political government: the State restricts people because of preferences it disapproves of. This is particularly ironic because governments discriminate on a scale no private actor could ever match, while prohibiting choices such as these:

  • a shop owner must serve everyone
  • a landlord must rent to everyone
  • an employer must hire without bias
  • a business must charge uniform prices
  • a seller must follow regulated price ranges

These rules interfere with voluntary choice, distort markets, and undermine basic freedoms of association and exchange. They also produce economic distortions, such as minimum wages, rent controls, and price regulations, that suppress information, misallocate resources, and harm the very people they claim to protect.

The deeper contradiction is this: people want non‑discrimination in principle, but discrimination in practice, as long as it benefits their group. They want freedom for themselves, but equality of outcomes for others. So they support freedom in private life (in theory) and equality enforced by the state (in practice).

But enforcing equality requires coercion: restrictions on voluntary trade, bans on differential pricing, and bans on selective association. This is why the state ends up violating the very freedoms it claims to defend. The NDP exposes this contradiction and resolves it by prohibiting state discrimination while protecting individual choice.