Peter Brimelow, writing several years ago in Forbes,1 calculated that affirmative action cost the U.S. $350 billion, or 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product, for the year 1992. To calculate this figure, Mr. Brimelow totaled the direct cost of various government enforcement agencies, and estimated indirect costs in lost productivity, inefficiencies, extra staffing, etc. in private industry and government. If his figures are at all accurate (and to my knowledge no one has ever challenged them), the cost of affirmative action since it first began in the mid-1960’s is now well into the trillions.
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