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In 1960, the economist Fredric Hayek produced his "Constitutional Rights" doctrine, maintaining the leading role he had played among individualists since 1940s. He was joined by L. Mises, G. Steagler, H. Hazlitt and others. But the true leader of this "Chicago
school" of individualism is Milton Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Back in 1953 the inter-university Society of Individuals was formed and the Chicago branch began publication of the "New Individualist Review" in 1961. Its spiritual mentors were Hayek and Friedman. The journal's credo was quite specifically formulated in the first editorial, confessing the belief in human freedom. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, the American scene was transformed, by the new wave of regulatory legislation, reflecting a sharply-rising concern for minorities and women, for the environment and the consumer of industrial products, and for the worker in industry and agriculture in the individualistic society.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a Unites States government agency. It enforces laws that prohibit job discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability. These laws are the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1967, and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The commission investigates complaints about job discrimination by public and private employers, labor unions and employment agencies. If an investigation shows reasonable cause to believe that discrimination has occurred, the EEOC works to help negotiate a settlement. If negotiations fail, the EEOS may sue in federal court. The EEOC was set up under the Civil Rights Act of 1965. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 broadened the EEOC's powers. Equal Rights amendment, states that men and women must be treated equally by law. Critics of the amendment say that the Constitution already guarantees equal rights to women. They also claim the ERA would abolish the right of a wife to be supported by her husband. Supporters of the ERA argue that, despite the guarantees of the Constitution, women do not always receive equal treatment. They also claim that the amendment would not affect personal relationships within marriage. The ERA makes several state and local laws unconstitutional, for example, it outlaws restrictions on the types of jobs women may hold and the number of hours a week they may work. The amendment also bans all laws that give one sex different rights than the other.
In 1968 a ban on discrimination in housing and renting was introduced. In 1972 universities and local government came under the control of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and stricter bans on sex discrimination in higher education were imposed. The new wave of regulation undoubtedly helped Americans to move in some degree toward their espoused objectives: equality for minorities and women, protection of the environment, protection for workers and consumers. However, if we look at the American society of our days, we can argue that equality and individualism still co-exist complementing each other. People from different races, ethnic groups and genders having equal rights still tend to exercise these rights in their strive for individual success. In the United States, for example, in 1980 there were only 13,022,000 small businesses. Just ten years later there were 20,393,000. In 1990 alone, 647,675 new businesses were incorporated nationwide, accounting for ninety per cent of the net job growth. The number of women who owned businesses increased by fifty per cent between 1987 and 1992, and the receipts of those businesses rose by eighty-one per cent. The number of black-owned businesses increased by thirty-seven per cent from 1982 to 1987, and the receipts of those businesses increased by more than two hundred per cent.
Some people start a business because they've lost a job after a lifetime of service. They want to feel secure the second or third time around and they've found that owning their own business though risky and difficult at first — meets that need. Others are leaving their jobs and starting their own business because they are bored, disappointed, angry, exhausted, or just plain tired of corporate life. Ybung people fresh out of colleges and universities are starting their own businesses too.
Americans are ultimately devoted to individualism. They have been trained since very early in their lives to consider themselves as separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies. They have not been trained to see themselves as members of a close-knit, tightly interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other collectivity. One can see it in the way Americans treat their children. Even very young children are given opportunities to make their own choices and express their opinions. A parent will ask a one-year-old child what color balloon she wants, which candy bar she would prefer, or whether she wants to sit next to Mommy or Daddy. The child's preference will normally be accommodated. Through this process. Americans come to see themselves as separate human beings who have their own opinions and who are responsible for their own decisions. Indeed, American child-rearing manuals (such as Dr. Benjamin Spook's famous "Child and Baby Care") state that the parents' objective in raising a child is to create a responsible, self-reliant individual who, by the age of 18 or so, is ready to move out of the parents' house and begin his or her own way in life. Americans take this advice very seriously, so much so that a person beyond the age of about 20 who is still living at home with his or her parents may be thought to be "immature", "tied to the, mother's apron strings", or otherwise unable to lead a normal, independent life.
Americans are trained to conceive of themselves as separate individuals, and they assume everyone else in the world is too. When they encounter a person from abroad who seems to them excessively concerned with the opinions of parents, with following traditions, or with fulfilling obligations to others, they assume that the person feels trapped or is weak, indecisive. They assume all people must resent being in situations where they are not free to make up their own minds. Americans believe, furthermore, that after living for a time in the United States people will come to feel liberated from constraints arising outside themselves.
