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More Firms Used Facebook To Block Older Job Seekers, Lawsuit Alleges (chicagotribune.com)

A proposed class-action lawsuit alleging Facebook's ad placement tools facilitate discrimination against older job-seekers has been expanded to identify additional companies. "When Facebook's own algorithm disproportionately directs ads to younger workers at the exclusion of older workers, Facebook and the advertisers who are using Facebook as an agent to send their advertisements are engaging in disparate treatment," a communications union alleged in the amended complaint, citing a legal test for employment discrimination, filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court. The union added claims under California's fair employment and unfair competition statutes to the lawsuit, which was initially filed in December. Chicago Tribune reports: The Communications Workers of America is suing on behalf of union members and other job seekers who allegedly missed out on employment opportunities because companies used Facebook's ad tools to target people of other ages. The original filing named defendants are Amazon.com Inc., Cox Media Group, Cox Communications Inc. and T-Mobile, as well as what the union estimates to be hundreds of employers and employment agencies who used Facebook's tools to filter out older job hunters when seeking to fill positions. The amended filing adds Ikea, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the University of Maryland Medical System to its list of companies who allegedly used Facebook's tools to filter by age. Those three entities, as well as Facebook, aren't named defendants in the lawsuit.

The union alleged in its amended lawsuit that Facebook also uses age-filtering in ads intended to find its own new employees. In January, the union filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint about the alleged practice, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. The CWA says it has filed similar claims against dozens of companies, and that the agency has asked those employers, and Facebook, to respond to the allegations. An EEOC spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the existence of any complaints.

117 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wrong word by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not presenting an ad to someone does not block them from applying to a job.

    Kind of hard to apply for a job you don't know exists.....

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  2. Why do they not want the experience? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is it about these companies (I'm a slightly past middle aged man myself at 38) that they do not want the workers who can actually create the products they desire? This obsession with scraping the bottom of the barrel, using immigrants, the young, the inept basically to formulate complex and towering architecture needed for a complex enough system to be worthy of sale. It makes no sense what so ever.

    They are dooming their own bottom line, just look at microsoft since it has been hijacked by foreign interests their quality level has practically hit the concrete and cracked it trying to go further. All in the name of trying to save a buck and now Linux is gaining a foothold on the desktop like never before (and rightly so it is now a vastly superior product and worthy of the mantle of being #1). At the end of the day the collapse of microsoft is inevitable at this point it is simply so large (they have a warchest which is now being used as life support) that its death is taking a long time but it is moving towards its final stages of being torn apart for sell-off piece by piece like sears. I give it maybe 20 years, probably less as their influence and power continue to bleed away, you'll start to see them floudering really badly after a decade or so (it has already started, quality so bad that updates are only performed after crossing your fingers) and then the pieces will start falling off as it shambles to the end.

    If I were a board member on these companies I would be screaming bloody murder about tossing out proper human tools for the formulation of these projects. It is not a 'nice to have' it is the only bloody way these things can see the light of day without being misshapen jokes of their intent. Billions perhaps even trillions are being spent by morons trying to do it as cheaply as possible.

    It is like seeing an airline switching to planes made of rubber bands and donkeys on treadmills to make trans Atlantic crossings. You can just feel how unstable and unfinished these projects are increasingly becoming. A good example would be the canadian pheonix system which was rushed, made with cheap immigrant labor and has screwed the government of canada throwing it into chaos.

    1. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

      Haven't you heard? Everyone is equal: that means whoever charges the least will produce just as well as those who charge the most and old people are going to care about a personal life and benefits in addition to having the experience to negotiate for better compensation and defend their stances, while a fresh dev will do 80+ hours a week on an entry level salary until they burn out. It's cheaper for them to buy out small innovative corporations who take on all the risk of R&D (seen in contrast to the number of small innovative corporations which go under before getting bought out) and just hire a bunch of hacks to daisychain it all together.

    2. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm a slightly past middle aged man myself at 38

      Middle aged is generally defined as 45 to 64. You have another seven years to go before the barista fresh out of college starts offering you a senior citizen discount.

    3. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      they do not want experience, they want people new enough to agree to work for peanuts. Experience is expensive and the (very) expensive CEOs childishly still believe they can get away with dirt cheap (young and unskilled developers). And if all goes wrong they (the CEOs) already have a golden parachute on their contract.

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    4. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by swb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My theory is that organic economic growth in the capitalist West has somehow stalled, and corporations looking for increasing profits are increasingly relying on cost cutting to boost profits.

      Eliminating older workers in favor of cheaper and more disposable young people and immigrants is a way to obtain cost reductions.

      It also helps to gut the middle class so that you produce an ever larger population of more economically disenfranchised young people who are willing to take low-paying jobs.

    5. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by richrz · · Score: 1

      "Middle aged is generally defined as 45 to 64" That's what all old people say.

    6. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

      Capital has become too concentrated, which means less diversity in how it is invested, and less tolerance for filling niche markets (if you're looking to invest hundreds of millions, a business needing an investment of a couple hundred thousand isn't even on your radar). And with stagnating wages, it becomes much harder for people who don't have capital to begin with to save enough to hang their own shingle.

      Without those smaller businesses starting up, there's a lot less economic biodiversity, which results in further concentration of capital, and the loop begins anew.

    7. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      The current generation of business owners have never had and will never have the Ford wisdom.

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    8. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by swb · · Score: 2

      I think there's also a kind of capital trap, where successful companies have so much capital on hand but don't see any way to invest it that guarantees rates of return better than short term investments.

      But at the same time, they're successful enough that there's not enough shareholder demand that they invest in new markets so they don't invest it, and the capital remains tied up in Treasuries rather than flowing through the economy as physical plants, wages and raw material purchases.

    9. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by jbengt · · Score: 1

      Middle aged is generally defined [merriam-webster.com] as 45 to 64.

      That would make a 44 year-old a young adult, which I won't go along with, even if they would be young compared to me.
      Childhood is 0 to 18, young adult about 18 to 36, middle age 36 to 54, mature adult 54 to 72, old person 72 to 90, and borrowed time 90 and up.
      Ok, I know that's more arbitrary than accurate, but still better than saying a 64 year old is middle aged - I'm 62, in relatively good health, and I'm definitely not feeling middle aged anymore.

    10. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      My theory is that organic economic growth in the capitalist West has somehow stalled, and corporations looking for increasing profits are increasingly relying on cost cutting to boost profits.

      Organic growth has stalled so now corporations, driven by the stock market, are focusing on cancerous growth. A company could be regularly turning a net profit of tens or millions of dollars annually, but if it misses an arbitrary growth rate by a percentage point or 2 the stock drops. Just like a cancer, incessant growth will eventually kill the host organism, whether a person or a company.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    11. Re: Why do they not want the experience? by sfcat · · Score: 1

      *looks at Microsoft*

      Their stock is way up, and that is all they care about. Nothing else matters to them. Hope you saved some money.

      That's only because GCP is failing as a platform so MS somehow fell into the #2 spot in the cloud (which is like being #2 in search).

      --
      "Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
    12. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

      Great point.

    13. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by slew · · Score: 2

      I can't keep up with what middle aged is, our life expectancy seems to jump up every time I approach it.

      Because that's how life expectancy works.

      I get the feeling I'll be 200 and being called a whipper snapper by 230 year olds.

      The older you get the longer your life expectancy... Only the oldest person in the world can outlive his or her own life expectancy. For the rest of us, there is always someone older.

      This is related to the common misconception that prehistoric men died around 35. That's really because the life expectancy at birth is skewed by high infant mortality rates. Skeletal remains show a significant fraction lived past 65, and comparison with modern day hunter gatherers in a study by Gurven and Kaplan show that modal adult life span (not life expectancy) likely in the range 68–78 years if you reached the age of 15 for prehistoric hunter-gathers which isn't too different than say the Victorian age which many regard as the beginning of the modern era...

    14. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 1

      You will be either happy or disappointed to know that your theory has a name and has been discussed for decades:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    15. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by swb · · Score: 1

      Happy to know that it's not just some crazy-ass dumb idea that has no basis in reality. I know that Tyler Cowen also has his own spin on the concept of stagnation.

      Slightly disappointed to note that it's an old idea, somewhat discredited. But I think economic stagnation is kind of an existential risk of any economy, and the failure of any given prediction of stagnation doesn't necessarily mean that any given economic situation can't be described by some kind of structural stagnation.

      I also think its likely that as the global economy matures, stagnation generally seems more likely and amplified by structural problems like wealth inequality, capital hoarding, income inequality, resource contention and so on.

      It may also be that growth stagnation isn't really a problem, and that income inequality and great wealth inequality are the actual problems. Growth is seen as a way of producing sufficient surpluses that mediate inequality (through demand for labor increasing wages, mostly), but really we can't rely on growth for mediating inequality.

      In fact, there may even be an argument that income and wealth inequality and capital hoarding by firms are actually symptoms of economic stagnation -- they're signs that there is diminished faith in growth producing surpluses, resulting in a desire to "corner the market" prior to even worse future scarcity.

    16. Re:Why do they not want the experience? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      It's more than that. Mellinials have this belief that only they can have fresh ideas and energy that old folks lack. This is most pervasive in young HR and managerial groups.

      When I was 26 I wanted to change the world and thought old people were stupid and only were there due to seniority.

  3. No surprise by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tech companies have been finding ways to discriminate against older workers for years. It is no surprise that they now use Facebook to that end. Facebook, with its targeted ad infrastructure, makes it more subtle and easier for the companies to continue to discriminate.

    1. Re:No surprise by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      What's amazing to me is that they are even using Facebook in the first place to target younger workers. Most young people don't even use Facebook that much anymore. Facebook in general seems like a terrible place to try to find job applicants, especially in the tech field.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:No surprise by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2

      ...Most young people don't even use Facebook that much anymore.

      That is far too general to have any meaning. There is a trend downwards in young people (under 25) people using Facebook, but many (most?) still do use Facebook. For the 25+ crowd (one could say, the workers being sought) the usage is still quite high, high enough to make job recruiting worthwhile. (btw, Facebook also includes Instagram)

    3. Re:No surprise by Bryansix · · Score: 1

      Do you have any proof of this or is it all conjecture? Let's take some example postings for actual jobs I read in the last week.

      Desired qualifications:
      At least seven years performing predictive analytics in a specific vertical Masters or PhD in Machine Learning, Engineering or Statistics Knowledge of this set of vertical specific applications

      How in the world would anybody who is younger than 30 even apply for this job?

  4. Re:That's it by terrycarlino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except being old is a legally protected class, just like being Black or female. Filter against Californians or beekeepers or people who drive red cars all you want. If you filter based on a protected class you have legal liability.

  5. LinkedIN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All this attention to facebook and none to LinkedIN. Many companies recruit exclusively on LinkedIN.

    And with all these social media sites, it's like if you don't sign up, you don't exist.

    Of course, it's a no brainer to use the APIs of those sites to screen out undesirables.

    No one will ever know.

  6. Re:That's it by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    A corporation is an abstract entity which does not exist save for government sanction, it derives all rights it has from what the government itself is allowed to convey. Moreover, the economy is a system meant to facilitate the efficient allocation of finite resources, it doesn't exist for anyone to leverage inefficiencies to the tune of the GDP of small nations, or even small towns - it exists to distribute resources. Fuckerberg is absolutely irrelevant, his wants and needs and desires are irrelevant, he's just a man, like any other.

  7. Re:Wrong word by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But does one have the right to be informed of the existence of all open job positions?

    If I wanted to hire for my business and just asked around my friends for recommendations/referrals without doing a "public" job offering, have I violated either the law or your sense of ethics?

    For a big company, I would imagine that posting it at company.com/careers constitutes a fair public announcement for anyone that wishes to inquire.

  8. Amazon is blantent about it by Dax123 · · Score: 3, Informative

    At a job interview with Amazon they asked how many years experience did I have with Unix. When I replied over 25 years, one of them said how did you get 25 years and I said well I am 52, and I worked for Sun Micro. The lead said, "I wish you hadn't said that, now I can't hire you, too old". And it ended.

    1. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And so you have your EEO complaint leading to expensive settlement for the company...

    2. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      At a job interview with Amazon they asked how many years experience did I have with Unix. When I replied over 25 years, one of them said how did you get 25 years and I said well I am 52, and I worked for Sun Micro. The lead said, "I wish you hadn't said that, now I can't hire you, too old". And it ended.

      So you got to the interview stage without them bothering to check your DoB? Right.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    3. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So you got to the interview stage without them bothering to check your DoB? Right. If you, or your company does this for job applicants, it's prima facie evidence of age discimination, which is illegal in the US.

      "I wish you hadn't said that, now I can't hire you, too old"

      And when you hear shit like this during an interview, it's prima facie evidence that you probably don't want to work for such an ignorant organization. They're only a couple lawsuits away from bankruptcy.

    4. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Come to Europe.
      You would be considered a high skilled expert here.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    5. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by antdude · · Score: 1

      Why would that matter? And if you didn't tell him, then they would still find out.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    6. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      No fresh ideas. The old hate change and the young have drive to change the world said every 25 year old HR manager ever?

    7. Re:Amazon is blantent about it by antdude · · Score: 1

      Um, I never saw applications ask for birthdates before interviews.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  9. who the hell looks for jobs on fucking facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    that is some next level stupidity

  10. Re:That's it by Drethon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Except being old is a legally protected class, just like being Black or female. Filter against Californians or beekeepers or people who drive red cars all you want. If you filter based on a protected class you have legal liability.

    Legally protected for jobs, but legally protected for targeted ads?

  11. Re:That's it by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 2, Informative

    You know there are magazines that cater exclusively to members of protected classes. To riff on your examples, Ebony and Jet are magazines targeted towards African Americans. Cosmopolitan targets females.

    Advertisers that specifically buy space in those magazines are surely "filtering based on a protected class". I would hope that they are consciously aware as well, rather than buying ads in Jet thinking they are targeting all demographics equally.

  12. This is not new: other targeted job ads by davidwr · · Score: 1

    What about job ads in college newspapers or other print outlets with a young demographic?

    What about radio/TV ads during shows with a young demographic?

    Yes, Facebook ads are generally invisible to the non-targeted but that is eay to fix.

    The big question is: Is it legal to posts job ads in a way that effectively targets one group at the expense of a protected class, even if members of that class can see the ad if they go out of their way to find it (e.g. reading college newspapers)?

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:This is not new: other targeted job ads by jszpilewski · · Score: 1

      But since when is Facebook showing job ads? I have heard about some plans to show job offers for blue collar workers but only in some future. Never seen a job add myself there. I must be an old fart then..

      Nevertheless looks that some companies wanted to reach Facebook users and reused Facebook's advertisement system intended for selling goods where you have to fill forms specifying target demographics. Most likely being too broad will cost you more.

      Facebook once again proved to be slow in making conclusions of how it is being used. With current anti-Facebook hysteria it puts them all in hot water now. ..

  13. Re:Wrong word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    But does one have the right to be informed of the existence of all open job positions?

    If I wanted to hire for my business and just asked around my friends for recommendations/referrals without doing a "public" job offering, have I violated either the law or your sense of ethics?

    For a big company, I would imagine that posting it at company.com/careers constitutes a fair public announcement for anyone that wishes to inquire.

    The answer to your initial question is "no".
    In the second question, it is not illegal (not advertised, and not a public offering), again not illegal.
    That said, when you advertise a position in such a fashion to purposefully eliminate candidates due to a protected basis (such as Age, Gender, Race, etc), then it is illegal. US companies are not Vogon Constructor Fleets...

  14. Re:That's it by ausekilis · · Score: 1

    We can bicker about this a bit more. Facebook is a "social media" platform, not a job searching/application service. Companies like Monster or Indeed would certainly be hit with some government clubs if they biased hiring/promotion based on any protected classes. If people are truly looking for work, then Facebook isn't the only place to look and no site should be solely relied upon to find your next job. The crux of this is *who* sees *what* ads.

    Would anybody really care if Facebook decided to only show cartoony ads catered to young children? What about only geriatric care ads?

    More to the point, would older people really want to see "Chik-fil-a, Now Hiring!"? Are older folks - who typically have already started a specific career path - really that offended that they aren't seeing Wal-Mart job ads?

  15. Re:Wrong word by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If I wanted to hire for my business and just asked around my friends for recommendations/referrals without doing a "public" job offering, have I violated either the law or your sense of ethics?

    Depends. When you ask your friends for recommendations do you say "no one that can remember the 70s?" If so, then quite possibly yes, you have violated the law. If these companies are focusing on one class of people over another based on a criteria that is not inherently necessary to the job function then they are definitely breaking the spirit of the law, if not necessarily the letter.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  16. Re:Wrong word by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's substitute "older" with "black" or "Jewish" and see if it changes your feelings on the matter. I find that's a useful way to gauge something like this.

    Personally, I think that companies that limit their potential pool of applicants and talent for any reason are just shooting themselves in the foot, unless you want to argue that older applicants are less qualified. In some cases they may not have exposure to the latest languages, frameworks, etc. but 20 years of experience is worth a lot in its own way.

    The other part of me thinks that these companies want young employees fresh out of college that they can work like a dog for a few years before casting them off. Older employees aren't anywhere near as willing to put up with that shit and likely have life commitments outside of work that don't afford them the opportunity to slog through 60 work weeks.

  17. Re:Right to be shown job ads? by DRJlaw · · Score: 4, Informative

    Moreover, how is this different than buying an ad in Teen Vogue? Or on Reddit? AARP magazine? Ebony? Cosmo? Any of those magazines has a massively skewed age/race/gender balance. A natural reading of the claim would mean that advertising in any of those would (quoting the pleading [documentcloud.org], section 21): "unlawfully exclude [some protected class] of workers from receiving job ads and other recruitment information". Heck, by this logic, even posting a (paper) job offer on the (physical) bulletin board at a university is discriminatory, since it's overwhelmingly likely to be seen by 18-22 year olds and hence "excludes older workers".

    As a stupid question...

    When you buy an ad in Teen Vogue, Reddit, AARP, Ebony, or Cosmo, you are buying an ad that is served to every reader of those magazines. The advertiser, the publisher, and the reader take the magazines demographics as it is.

    When you buy an ad on Facebook, you down-select from Facebook's demographics based upon categories that are both ordinary and potentially problematic.

    And that ca be a no-no. Because failing to serve an ad based on a discriminatory down-selection can be a violation of civil rights laws.

  18. Re:Wrong word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    But does one have the right to be informed of the existence of all open job positions?

    Potentially, yes. You may not know it, but the public posting of jobs is considered a means to avoid discrimination, favoritism and other unethical actions.

    If I wanted to hire for my business and just asked around my friends for recommendations/referrals without doing a "public" job offering, have I violated either the law or your sense of ethics?

    Absolutely. You've pretty much guaranteed that you are only selecting from those who you like like, which is a common problem.

    For a big company, I would imagine that posting it at company.com/careers constitutes a fair public announcement for anyone that wishes to inquire.

    If that was all they did, that'd be a possible argument, but...wait friend, that isn't all they did.

    And really, it wouldn't be a great argument, since that wouldn't be affirmative action. It'd be a matter of "We didn't provably intend to discriminate" rather than "We did discriminate" but sometimes the standard is "This is how we sought to avoid discrimination" in order to reach the necessary ethical standard.

  19. Re:Wrong word by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    Kind of hard to apply for a job you don't know exists.....

    Why would Facebook be your goto job-hunting source? It is close to my last choice, right above maybe the help-wanted ads in the old fashioned physical newspaper thing.

    Honestly now that linked-in has become pretentious facebook I can hardly use that anymore, but even LinkedIn isn't the best source, even ignoring MS having taken over. Most of the jobs through these sources are the kinds of things where they collect your resume, find a reason to not hire you to justify their cheaper H1B hire, and use your resume as evidence. They just need a lot of applicants, and it's easier to find unqualified ones by broadcasting their openings in unlikely places. Facebook job hunting: If you wouldn't shit where you eat, don't go to eat where people shit.

    You're way better off, if you have >10 years, using your peers and former coworkers. Often there is cash incentive to refer you, so they'll be on-board. After that, start looking around in popular industry websites/material/etc.

  20. Re:Smart by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Trump University says it's just smart to hire junior workers and pay them less. Old farts in their 30s and beyond care about too many unimportant things like family and work life balance.

    And the ones in their 70s care about accumulating power, giving jobs to their kids and playing golf.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
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  21. Re:Wrong word by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

    It all depends on how you are doing it; if you specifically filter on age (or likely high school/college graduation date or other probable indicators of age), then you will get in trouble.

    We use Toaster or some other random named job board system that is popular with the young'uns and colleges these days. Most of the candidates have 0.5-2.5 years of experience in our field, which is something we are targeting for some positions.

    Other positions we want 10-30 years of experience. Our average age is well over 40, although median is closer to 35 I would guess-- so we aren't likely candidates to have job bias complaints. Once our two 78+ employees retire we might take a closer look though...

  22. Re:Thought-crimes by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When you ask your friends for recommendations do you say "no one that can remember the 70s?" If so, then quite possibly yes, you have violated the law.

    In other words, whether or not your action is a crime depends on your thoughts during the act.

    Which makes it a thought-crime

    No, it does not. The thought of discrimination against an older person is the motivation behind your act, but it is the act itself that is illegal. Let's take your logic: I break into a house to steal something. The owner is home and I end up killing them. I didn't plan to kill them, therefore I am not guilty of murder because it wasn't my thought to kill them.

    Thought crime is when you can be arrested simply for having a thought or an idea. Once you have moved beyond thought into action, you are no longer in thought crime territory but actual crime territory. And this happens regularly during criminal proceedings, for example when to attach hate crime charges. A white guy beats up a black guy, and it's assault. The white guy says white supremacist/derogatory things while beating up the black guy? That speaks to his motivations for the crime and lends evidence towards a hate crime.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  23. Re:Wrong word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I post a job advertisement in Elle magazine, am I (given I know the demographics of Elle's readership) discriminating against men? Similarly, if Rolex posts in ad in The Economist, are they discriminating against non-white folks? Does an ad placed in Noir discriminate against the same white folks who benefit from the ad in The Economist?

    Firms already target their ads, where do you propose we draw the line?

  24. Re:Over 50 ?? by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 2

    Well, still no safety net, but the independent contractor/self-employed route can be equally lucrative.

  25. Re:Over 50 ?? by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    a 54 year old fully experienced fully educated to university level programmer, engineer, lead.

    They don't put young people in charge and they don't give old people the grunt work.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  26. Re:Right to be shown job ads? by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

    While large corporations are in a different class, small employers are unlikely to target more than one paid platform... and are less likely to keep job postings on the website 100% current (rather than strategic hire positions that are "always open"). Does this put them at risk in your opinion?

  27. Re:That's it by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

    How about we use that little talked about third way between outright nationalization and privatization, and just - lightly, mostly, but occasionally heavily where it's necessary - regulate private companies?

    I know that's an entirely new concept and has never been tried before but...

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  28. Re:Better idea by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Don't filter on age.

    Filter on union membership.

    Filter on intelligence and dickishness.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  29. for H1B no you can't make it an non public job pos by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    for H1B no you can't make it an non public job posting

  30. An even bigger and more insidious problem by jenningsthecat · · Score: 2

    What about the discrimination on the part of potential employers against applicants who simply don't use social media at all, and therefore aren't on FB? That can't be fixed by any action on the part of FB or partners. It's also difficult to prove, grossly unfair, and pretty much impossible to do anything about in the absence of legislation and a serious effort at enforcement.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  31. Re:So what? by stealth_finger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but there is no more place in the modern workforce for the over-30. Let's not delude them into thinking otherwise.

    So retirement at 30? Fucking shit hot. All these under 30 must be making so much to provide for everyone over 30 who is no longer able to work. Or should everyone have made enough by 30 to fund an additional 60 years of life? Tricky, but doable if you get everything handed down to you by generations that weren't full of shit though and you don't care about the next generation.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  32. Re:Wrong word by bickerdyke · · Score: 1

    That's why when I'm looking for a job, I'm actually LOOKING for a job and not surfing facebook and wait for job ads to pop up.

    --
    bickerdyke
  33. young kids don't have the experience to say no to by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    young kids don't have the experience to say no or that will not work.

  34. Re:Wrong word by JMJimmy · · Score: 2

    The employer would have to specify on Facebook what age group to target. If they specified anything that excluded anyone of working age then that was intentional discrimination.

    This is an example of the screen they would see (ignore big red arrow):

    https://www.socialmediaexamine...

  35. Re:Wrong word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And older employees actually tend to use things like Vacation (follows your comments) and their health insurance. I admit as an older worker that's around about 50%+ 20 somethings where I work I"m enjoying reasonably priced benefits. Also older workers may be higher up on the pay scale as well.

  36. Re:That's it by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    It all depends on the intent of selecting those magazines for advertising. If the goal is to market stuff to those demographics then that's not going to disadvantage anyone else. If the goal is to make sure white people don't see certain job adverts because for some reason they only want people of colour, that's probably illegal.

    In other words it's not the targeting per-se that is the issue, it's if the targeting disadvantages anyone.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  37. Re:That's it by Headw1nd · · Score: 1

    Time to make Facebook/Social Networks government-owned and privately operated.

    So you aren't content with the problems we have now, and are interested in adding even more?

  38. Re:Wrong word by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    But does one have the right to be informed of the existence of all open job positions?

    That's not the problem, the issue is the pay-per-view model that Facebook uses.

    If you advertise a job on Monster or some other job site you pay for the time it is displayed there. Doesn't matter how many people view it, so there is really no point in them offering to hide it from certain demographics.

    If you advertise a job on Facebook you pay for impressions and click-throughs. So advertising to demographics that you have no intention of hiring costs you money. Of course, if you don't care about the applicant's age there is no problem, but if you do then Facebook offers handy tools to save you some cash.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  39. Re:Right to be shown job ads? by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 1

    When you buy an ad in Teen Vogue, Reddit, AARP, Ebony, or Cosmo, you are buying an ad that is served to every reader of those magazines. The advertiser, the publisher, and the reader take the magazines demographics as it is.

    Well no, you don't just take it "as-is", you have a choice of Teen Vogue or Ebony or Elle or .... Which is to say you can chose the magazine whose demographic most closely matches.

  40. Re:Wrong word by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    Even a lot of older people can't remember the 70's....

  41. Re: Thought-crimes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Now you're getting into motive, not thought crime.

    In the case of breaking into a house and unintentionally killing the owner, you have killed someone, they will use motive to determine the degree. It could be "minor" offense like manslaughter or the highest level of "terrorism" depending on what the court thinks your motive was.

    The important distinction though is that until you DID something no crime was done. Having a bad thought is not a crime, performing a "bad" action is.

  42. What is the remedy? by ahoffer0 · · Score: 1

    Interesting conundrum. What are the possible solutions?

    1. Re:What is the remedy? by PPH · · Score: 1

      I don't have a Facebook account. But were I to begin job shopping, what's to stop me from creating one with a fake age? The worst Zuckerberg could do to be is to suspend my account.

      I already 'fake' my age by a few days or months when signing up for various sites who don't have a legal right to know it. It slows people down from scraping the web and setting up fake IDs in my name if they can't get my birthday right. And I get Happy Birthday messages from various sources all throughout the year.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:What is the remedy? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      record the interview and when you have them on tape saying your not X age or did you lie about your age?

  43. Re:That's it by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 1

    If I advertise in Ebony, yes more you'll get more African readers to see your ad - there isn't any issue here because white people can still buy ebony if they want to.

    So long as white people can also visit mycompany.com/careers and see the same advertisements, is there an issue?

  44. Re:Right to be shown job ads? by ausekilis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Based on this example, if I am looking to hire and using Facebook, then it falls on me to select the appropriate demographics. It isn't Facebooks fault I picked 18-35, so the blame would fall squarely on me.

    Sounds like the blame goes to those listing the jobs, though Facebook might have some work to do regarding clarifying what categories on their platform really mean.

  45. Re:Wrong word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    > Firms already target their ads, where do you propose we draw the line?

    Targeting ads isn't necessarily the same as excluding others from viewing them. Your job posting may be viewed by anyone who reads Elle, even if they aren't part of Elle's target demo. Your job posting on Facebook will not be shown to anyone 35+ if you specifically request it only go to 18-34. There is no "flipping through a copy in the waiting room at the dentist's office" equivalent on Facebook. That's where the line is.

  46. Re:Thought-crimes by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    No, it does not. The thought of discrimination against an older person is the motivation behind your act, but it is the act itself that is illegal

    It is not illegal to not hire an older person. It is precisely my thoughts about it, that may make the not-hiring illegal.

    That's not a thought crime though. Once you have taken the action of not hiring that person (yes, for those of you are trying to be pedantic, not acting is still acting) because they are old you have committed an actual, physical crime. Your thought is the motive for the crime.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  47. Re:for H1B no you can't make it an non public job by Alypius · · Score: 1

    Just beware of the leopard.

  48. Re:Wrong word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    There is a difference between posting an ad somewhere it is unlikely to be seen by particular demographics, and posting it somewhere it is impossible to be seen by particular demographics because they are being actively blocked from seeing it.

  49. Re:Wrong word by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kind of hard to apply for a job you don't know exists.....

    Why would Facebook be your goto job-hunting source? It is close to my last choice, right above maybe the help-wanted ads in the old fashioned physical newspaper thing.

    You are looking at this wrong. In this case Facebook isn't a job-hunting source, it is an employee recruitment source. Companies are paying for ads advertising their open positions, and the allegation is that these companies are using Facebook's ad-targeting data to only serve ads to people who are younger and presumably cheaper. It will be interesting to see how the court interprets the anti-discrimination laws in this case, especially if they are able to show in court precisely what criteria was used to determine who to serve the ad to.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  50. Re:for H1B no you can't make it an non public job by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

    behind the sign saying "beware of leopard"

  51. Pointless theoretical argument by mileshigh · · Score: 1

    Advertisers that specifically buy space in those magazines are surely "filtering based on a protected class".

    Pointless theoretical argument. Companies don't advertise jobs in those kinds of magazines. Period. They do advertise other things, but those are not protected against discrimination like jobs and real estate are.

    And, yes, most HR and real estate people do indeed consider the mix of media buys when planning advertising campaigns. That's because back in the days when companies did advertise jobs in newspapers & magazines, there were discrimination lawsuits because a pattern of job advertising venue choices in effect discriminated against a protected class. You or I may personally take issue with outcome-based rulings and laws like that, but that is the law at this time.

  52. Re:Thought-crimes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You are welcome to boycott companies discriminating based on any trait you find important, but it should not be illegal.

    Why not? I am seriously asking here. When the government is by, for, and of the people, it seems perfectly acceptable to go "we the people are sick and tired of boycotting the same businesses for the same things every other week. We demand a law which says they can't do X so that we can go on with our god-damned lives".

  53. Young, dumb, and naive by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    I see comments on this subject all the time claiming that older tech workers can't keep up with current technology, and that's the reason companies are excluding them and trying to get rid of them. That's not the reason; the real reason is the oldest reason of all: money. Older = more experienced = worth more = demands more pay. I've got more than one friend who works or used to work for a tech company tell me that they're getting rid of older experienced and competent people in favor of young graduates with little to no experience simply because they can pay them peanuts comparatively speaking because they're eager enough to get ANY job that they'll accept low pay. Then there's the workers imported from overseas who likewise will work for peanuts because it's still more than they'd get in their home countries.

    As a sidebar to this, you want the real reason the United States is falling behind the curve on innovation? It's because of the above. Get rid of the experienced people and expect a bunch of kids with little to no experience to just, what, absorb 30+ years of experience through osmosis? Yeah sure that'll work (wait, no it doesn't!). It used to be that experience was always greater than any piece of paper hanging on the wall. That doesn't seem to be true anymore and it's hurting everyone.

    1. Re:Young, dumb, and naive by Bryansix · · Score: 2

      This is how Circuit City went out of business. They laid off all their higher paid sales people. Those people also happened to account for most of the sales.

    2. Re:Young, dumb, and naive by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

      True story: Way back in a previous life, I used to repair coin-op arcade games. I worked for the same guy for years. He was a non-electronics person. In reference to some game PCB that was broken, that I was expressing my doubts as to whether it could be repaired or not, he actually said to me "Can't you just change some chips or something?" like it was all just snap your fingers and it's All Better Now. You can imagine the look I gave him. This is how business people (who are not technical people) think: we make it look easy, they have no idea what it takes to get a job done, so they think it's Not That Hard and we're just sandbagging them. Then some of them get the bright idea that just because someone has a shiny new Bachelors' Degree hanging on their wall, that they Know Everything.

  54. Simple Solution by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 1

    I tell sites I am 22. Employers are thrilled when they find out I also have 30 years of experience; except those trying to prove there are no viable citizen/resident candidates.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  55. Re:Thought-crimes by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

    By that line of reasoning, there should be no laws against libel or slander, or fraud, or or any distinction between first degree and second degree murder or manslaughter - anything where intent is a key element to the charge. Which is obviously ridiculous.

  56. Re:Thought-crimes by Bryansix · · Score: 1

    Woah guy. Your analogy is flawed beyond belief. Here is a better analogy. Two men kill someone in self defense. One of those men calls the attacker (who they kill) a racial epitaph. The other guy says nothing. Both men did the same thing but one of them will probably be tried for a hate crime and the other probably won't be charged at all (since it's self defense).

  57. Re: Thought-crimes by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 2

    Now you're getting into motive, not thought crime.

    How is motive not thoughts before or during the act?

    The important distinction though is that until you DID something no crime was done. Having a bad thought is not a crime, performing a "bad" action is.

    Correct - not wanting to hire an older person is not an offense, nor is hiring a young person even though you don't mind hiring an older person. Taking the action of not hiring someone because they are older IS an offense. It's not the thought that is the offense, it's the thought and the action together.

  58. Re:Thought-crimes by Bryansix · · Score: 1

    The thought police are moderating you down but I get it. If a person simply hires less old people, they can't be charged with a crime. If that person admits they hire less old people because they are old, they can be charged with a crime. It's not the action that makes it illegal, but the motivation becoming public.

  59. Re:Smart by Bryansix · · Score: 1

    Junior worker has nothing to do with age; it has to do with experience in the job they are applying for.

  60. Re:Right to be shown job ads? by Bryansix · · Score: 1

    That reminds me to renew my subscription to Teen Vogue.

  61. Re:So what? by Bryansix · · Score: 1

    Well, this is what you get when you take a complex situation and try to simplify it too much. Younger workers are useful in some jobs. In others, their lack of experience plays against them. Do you really want a bunch of recent college grads designing complex electrical distribution circuits straight out of college? They wouldn't even understand the systems where they were supposed to get the inputs into the processes through which the design process would start. That experience isn't useless. Sure, they could figure it out but it would take them a lot longer.

  62. Re:Wrong word by Bryansix · · Score: 1

    What kind of person fills in the race question on Facebook? Like I need to provide a globalist organization with more ways to discriminate against me.

  63. Re:Wrong word by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    Health benefits. Unless you are in the biggest of risk pools (large state, Fortune 100) the policies can have rates that scale with age (and sex). If you are a health insurer, the best pool of subscribers is 18-40 year old males. They pays their money and they takes their chances. And don't have pap smears or kids.

    There are lots of carve outs for stuff like this. Many companies can't get insurance policies that are offer different prices for various patient classes. But there are enough of them that can do that and since insurance and benefits can equal salary for employees, you can bet the companies look very carefully at this.

    Which is just one (of many) reasons why continuing to base medical insurance on employment is batshit insane.

    Welcome to our world.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  64. Re:Wrong word by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 1

    Depends. When you ask your friends for recommendations do you say "no one that can remember the 70s?" If so, then quite possibly yes, you have violated the law.

    My friends are all in their 30s and most their acquaintances are in their 30s. So without saying or intending that, this procedure is a) not visible to the majority of job seekers of any age and b) mostly excludes those that can remember the 70s just by virtue of the social circle to which the question went.

    That's the point -- I've cast a net out for prospective employees but done so in a way that targets a particular demographic.

    What's more, in this hypothetical, I haven't posted the job anywhere else. So if you are not an acquaintance of one of mine, you literally cannot find out about this job.

    If the law makes this is illegal, I'd be quite surprised.

  65. Re:So what? by Matheus · · Score: 1

    You just had to take the Troll bait didn't you...

    The OP is from an wannabe engineer who I won't be hiring when they come looking for a job because they think they know more than they do :)

  66. Re:Wrong word by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    My friends are all in their 30s and most their acquaintances are in their 30s. So without saying or intending that, this procedure is a) not visible to the majority of job seekers of any age and b) mostly excludes those that can remember the 70s just by virtue of the social circle to which the question went.

    That's the point -- I've cast a net out for prospective employees but done so in a way that targets a particular demographic.

    What's more, in this hypothetical, I haven't posted the job anywhere else. So if you are not an acquaintance of one of mine, you literally cannot find out about this job.

    If the law makes this is illegal, I'd be quite surprised.

    Again, it depends. In your specific example, the criteria preventing people from getting hired is you (or by extension, your friends) don't know the (potential) applicant. You are not (by reasonable assumption) explicitly avoiding people based upon a protected class and would presumably hire someone that is qualified and in a protected class.

    Now, if one of your friends said his 45 year old next door neighbor just got downsized and needs a job, but is a good worker and qualified for the job and your response is "hell no, no one over 40" then yes, you've got an issue on your hands. Of course the usual defense for that is "It's not because he is old, we just feel that the salary we are offering (near-slave or starvation level) would be less than what he would ask for (because he's old)"

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  67. Re:Wrong word by jbengt · · Score: 1

    No, no. I can remember the '70s just fine. It's what I did 15 minutes ago that I have trouble remembering.

  68. Re:Smart by jbengt · · Score: 1

    I voted for Gary Johnson and I got a libertarianish president anyways.

    W T F ?

  69. Re:Thought-crimes by mi · · Score: 1

    That's not a thought crime though

    The contents of my thoughts determines, whether the very same action is a crime. Ergo, thought-crime.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  70. They've been getting away with dirt cheap by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    for at least 15 years, maybe longer. As far as I can tell they seem to be winning.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  71. Re:Thought-crimes by mi · · Score: 1

    Lying is wrong, Murder is wrong. Intent may be important to determining the gravity of the wrongness. But it should not decide, whether it is wrong at all.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  72. Re:Wrong word by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    Even a lot of older people can't remember the 70's....

    I guess you could argue that if you remember the 70s you were either very young, very old, or you did the 70s very wrong.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  73. Re: Smart by sfcat · · Score: 1

    And the ones in their 70s care about accumulating power, giving jobs to their kids and playing golf.

    I can't say I know a lot of 70 year olds in that group. Many I've seen can barely afford a "pot to piss in" and are abandoned in nursing homes or poor living conditions with neglected healthcare because they're not considered useful anymore. Some are doing OK. Many are responsible for the wealth inequality gap that we continue to accept as a society which we can change during a single election period but fail to do so because were sparse and disorganized as a group

    The OP was describing Trump...and now that I've explained the joke, its no longer funny.

    --
    "Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
  74. College job fairs block older job seekers by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    Posting ads in a printed newspaper blocks younger job seekers.
    Posting ads on a community notice board at the supermarket blocks online grocery shoppers seeking jobs.

    etc...

  75. Re:Thought-crimes by slew · · Score: 1

    Lying is wrong, Murder is wrong. Intent may be important to determining the gravity of the wrongness. But it should not decide, whether it is wrong at all.

    Right or wrong is merely window dressing for the masses. If a child "accidentially" kills a person by their act and they aren't charged with a crime is it not "wrong"?

  76. Re:So what? by radarskiy · · Score: 1

    In the book we got Carousel at 21.

  77. Re:Thought-crimes by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

    Most people think that refusing to considering hiring people of a particular race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, age, physical disability, sexual orientation, or veteran status is wrong, too. Thus their protected status (sexual orientation in some states, everything else federally).

  78. Re:Wrong word by slew · · Score: 1

    Of course, if you don't care about the applicant's age there is no problem, but if you do then Facebook offers handy tools to save you some cash.

    Sure, you save cash by getting to hire cheap labor by avoiding directly discriminating against applicants...
    Or did you mean in the advertising bill for impressions?
    All the same, you save some cash right ;^)

  79. Re:Wrong word by slew · · Score: 1

    That's why when I'm looking for a job, I'm actually LOOKING for a job and not surfing facebook and wait for job ads to pop up.

    I don't think you know how it works. Today, the ad platform is looking for you, you aren't looking for ads...

  80. Re:Wrong word by worldthinker · · Score: 2

    The intent is the same. You are impermissibly using a criterion for recruitment. You may not discriminate on the basis of age in hiring.

  81. Re:Wrong word by Duhavid · · Score: 1

    "if Rolex posts in ad in The Economist, are they discriminating against non-white folks"

    No, they are discriminating against the "less wealthy".
    Understood that many whites are wealthy, but many many more whites are "less wealthy".
    Further there is a distribution within non-whites of wealthy, "less wealthy".

    --
    emt 377 emt 4
  82. Re: Wrong word by stinkyjak · · Score: 1

    Is this same as my employer only hiring non-white non-male employees, even if far less qualified than males in the same pay range?

  83. Re: That's it by Drethon · · Score: 1

    Imagine that it was filtering for no people of color. Or, at Google, to filter for no white guys.

    Your argument is like saying we'll post up a job on the bulletin board at the public court house nearby, yet we'll target under 30s online as well.

    Clearly discrimination.

    I wasn't saying discrimination in any form is OK, I'm saying there are laws against discrimination in employment, are there any laws that protect against advertising discrimination?

  84. Re:Wrong word by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 1

    If I've posted the job on company.com/careers, anyone can casually "flip through" the open positions there.

  85. Re:Wrong word by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

    If you ONLY advertise in Elle, yes. If you also place a similar amount of advertising in GQ, no.

    Talking about advertising a Rolex is a false equivalence. Demographic targeting of goods is legal pretty much across the board, though refusing to sell goods to people in a protected category is not. Demographic advertising of JOBS is another matter. There are laws prohibiting job ads that exclude a protected category, with the exception of jobs where it's an actual job qualification. (Thus you can advertise for actors of a specific race, exclude men from a job as a lingerie fitter or a women's locker room attendant, etc.)

    The legal question that will be answered by the cases about Facebook filtering is whether using a medium that allows selective targeting of job advertising to keep people in a protected category from seeing your job ads is legally equivalent to placing ads that exclude that category. It's a bit different than the situation with Elle magazine; a man could pick up that magazine and look for job listings, but he couldn't do the equivalent thing with Facebook except by setting up a second account that appeared to belong to a woman. That's a bit trickier than it seems; you can choose your age and gender when you set up the account, but they will also use their Big Data to try to figure out those things (and others, like political orientation and whether you have children) and target your advertising accordingly.

  86. Re:Wrong word by Hylandr · · Score: 1

    There's more than one line.

    These guys know all about the lines you are referring to:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.