The aff cannot solve for universal racialized wage gaps because their model relies on a “rational expectation equilibrium” that is used to justify discriminatory and racialized violence towards Black and gendered bodies.

Law shapes the economy and economic principles shape the law. 139Neoclassical economic theory is the predominant economic model supporting the development of law. This economic analysis of law examines issues from the perspective of marketplace efficiency. 140An outgrowth of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand theory, neoclassical economic theory eschews even "a minimum level of governmental interference" or state intervention in economic affairs. 141 "Neoclassical economics describes the economy as a state of equilibrium, in which the forces of supply and demand interact to achieve optimal allocation of society's resources." 142Its axioms are premised on "voluntary, informed, and rational (i.e., utility maximizing)" economic decision-making. 143Neoclassical economics models are also based on perfect competition. 144The market fairly and efficiently allocates resources and achieves a societal equilibrium as individuals make "self-interested economic decisions." 145 Neoclassical economic models are centered around "systems of generalizations." 146This system "describes the relationships among a range of stated variables," and the analysis of [*665] variables can be used to predict changes in other variables. 147This is particularly significant when discussing discrimination considering two neoclassical economics principles. The first is the axiom of static equilibrium, which means that the market responds to external stimuli as necessary and achieves a new equilibrium, a new resting point, repeatedly. 148The second is the axiom that competitive economies eliminate discriminatory wages. 149Theoretically, this means that over time race discrimination should diminish. The ever-widening racialized wage gap is an indication that the market has not responded to the exogenic conditions that produce racialized economic inequality. Income inequality and wage gaps, at every economic level, continue to plaque the Black community Neither of the neoclassical economics theories of discrimination, statistical and taste, provide an adequate explanation for the racialized gender wage gap. This is, in part, because of the variables used in neoclassical economics to analyze discrimination in general, and intersectional discrimination in particular. 151The statistical discrimination model explains employment outcomes based entirely on "rational expectations equilibrium." 152It equates employers' beliefs about workers' skill levels with "the willingness to hire." 153The employer then determines the amount and degree of its human capital investment based on its expectations. 154The employers' self-fulfilling, rational expectations determine workers' actual skill [*666] levels. 155Whether these presumptions are correct or become "the self-fulfilling prophecy" is the question that often is raised regarding the phenomenon. 156Expectations often turn into reality for no reason other than they were based on flawed, even biased, selections. 157 The employer's system "can have multiple equilibria with distinct employment and wage levels, each with correct expectations." 158When employment varies among groups, that difference is explained by pointing to different equilibria. 159Yet, there is no critical evaluation of the equilibria factors nor policy employed when there is a poor or weak equilibrium. 160 Critics of neoclassical economics reject the employers' rational belief of group low productivity. Instead, this result is explained by human capital theory. 161Employers "learn" that they can pay less-productive employers less. Alternatively, employers might determine that the less-productive employees are productive. As that information is disseminated in the marketplace, other employers might hire the newly labeled, productive employees. 162Employers who did not "experiment and learn' would be less profitable, while those who take the risk of experimenting can pay lower wages for the same quality of work. 163 Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker developed the taste for discrimination framework. Becker posits that discrimination occurs when an employer is "willing to pay." 164Taste discrimination differs, however, because the employer is obviously biased. Discrimination occurs when there is a preference to a person with a particular characteristic, despite the equal or superior qualifications of a less-desired person. 165If an employer [*667] is prejudiced against a person of a specific race or sex, the question becomes, how much more is the employer willing to pay to avoid hiring the less-desired person. 166Wage discrimination is sustainable in the presence of employers who prefer prejudice to profits. 1 Challenges to the neoclassical economics model are numerous because of its impact on legal decision-making. 168To the extent that the present economic models influence legal decision-making, a critical assessment safeguards rather than limits employees' economic choices instead of licensing employers' choices that are a pretense for illegal economic conduct. Moreover, legal rules need to expand beyond economic rationality. Law has relied heavily on rational-person economics in evaluating discriminatory conduct based on the essential differences between men and women. However, when making gender decisions law has not accounted for the interdependence of social structures and human relationships. In an effort to analyze the marginalization of women's economic contributions, economist Marilyn Power coined the term "social provisioning." 169Her sole objective was to broaden the traditional market measures of work and its pecuniary value to include those contributions that were either low wage or [*668] performed outside of markets. 170Power identified five categories: (1) care work and unpaid labor; (2) well-being as economic success; (3) race, ethnicity, and class classifications; (4) agency, individual choice, and power dynamics; and (5) ethical goals and values that require a critical analysis of their effect on economic markets. 171Specifically, she argues that a feminist economic perspective would assign a quantifiable value to the effect of the category in economic production and exchange markets instead of having the economic effect go unmeasured. 172Eliminating these embedded economic outcomes is essential to closing the racialized wage gap.