How Does Discrmination Limit Human Capital Utilization?

We hear a lot about discrimination in society and its impact from a personal and often emotional point of view. However, we don't often hear about the dangers of discrimination from an economic standpoint. Discrimination limits the amount of intellectual and human capital available to companies that must compete on a global scale and need that diversity to further their global objectives.

It is difficult to be innovative with products and services that apply to a global audience if such products are created by people who share too close similarities in background. The world is becoming more global and diversified talent is needed to ensure we have the capacity to hedge differences in our background to be inventive.

In order for companies to truly capitalize on diversity they will need to have access to people of different backgrounds. Poor education, discriminatory policies, poverty, tense relations with police, and short-sighted political solutions do harm to encouraging groups to engage the system fully. This capital becomes lost to society thereby limiting our future options.

One of the reasons why our institutions will change is because they have no option as they run against the needs of a more global world that will require higher levels of competitiveness. As the U.S. risks moving into the second spot in terms economic size, it will need to rethink these institutions to create maximum engagement and competitiveness.