California State legislature recently passed a bill banning discrimination based on language. At first glance this would seem like a great victory for civil rights, but in reality that is a disaster waiting to happen that allows people to act irresponsibly based on their language. My opinion of the California legislature is pretty low, they have after all run up a 40$ billion state deficit. This language discrimination bill smack of irresponsibly and any kind of forward in depth critical thinking.

The bill does have a provision allowing business’s that can prove a ‘language necessity’ to refuse to hire employees who cannot speak a certain language. Naturally they have worded the bill that makes it quite easily for non-hired applicants to sue and argue the ‘language necessity’ provision. California has taken a profound step of taking away rights while at the same time putting ‘certain’ Californians on a pedestal. For arguments sakes lets talk about English. California business’s now have to fear language discrimination lawsuits. Naturally this will drain their already shrinking pocket books. This environment of fear, created by the state legislature, will cause business’s to hire unqualified workers simply because they want to avoid lawsuits from disgruntled applicants. This will intern create a workforce that cannot compete with the rest of the nation and the world. I am sure there is no need to go into what will happen after that.

Typically discrimination has been based on factors that are not choices, for example your age, gender or race. English is a proficiency that can be learned and people can choose to learn English, or refuse to. This is the first step toward irresponsible policies that will handicap the American people and our way of life. California is now in the business of regulating choice. If I choose not to have a certain skill, it is up to debate if I am discriminated against if a certain business will not hire me. This has effectively opened the door to other legislature concerning discrimination based on choices.

If exit signs are not written in who knows how many languages, we now have a means to which people can be sued based on safety discrimination. What about simple street signs, are stop signs going to have to be printed in multiple languages also. With the current financial disaster California has created for itself, I cannot imagine how cheap implementing these policies will be. Congratulations California in shooting yourself in the foot, we can always count on you.

California, taking away your rights, one bill at a time. We never forget who were working for.