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<div class="top"><span class="authors"><a href="https://www.city-journal.org/person/christopher-f-rufo">Christopher F. Rufo</a></span>
<h1 class="title">DEI Cash Cow</h1>
<p class="subtitle">The White House’s equity agenda was a boon to consulting firms.</p>
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<div class="sidebar" aria-hidden="true"><span class="type">Eye on the News</span>&nbsp;<span class="topics">/&nbsp;<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/topic/the-social-order">The Social Order</a></span></div>
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<div class="date-share" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="date">Nov 20 2024</span><a class="addthis-trigger">/ Share</a></div>
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<div id="article-content" class="m_gutenberg standard">
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is an old saw that, in America, every great cause begins as a movement and eventually degenerates into a racket.&nbsp;This is certainly true of the past decade’s most fashionable cause: “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” What might have begun as a social movement has now become a business—and not just in the United States. According to McKinsey &amp; Company, spending on “DEI-related efforts” across the globe totaled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/most-diversity-initiatives-fall-short-but-success-is-within-reach-with-these-five-factors">$7.5 billion</a>&nbsp;in 2020. If trends continue, that figure will exceed $15 billion by 2026.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And, in another American tradition, government contractors have turned a profit on this fad. While it’s hard to determine the precise amount of money that Washington spends on DEI, a search for contracts, grants, and other outlays that reference “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and similar terms suggests that DEI principles were attached to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/search?hash=e99108916fa05072da8f73063e0fd08c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more than $1 billion</a>&nbsp;in federal contracts last year.&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/dei-cash-cow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continue &gt;&gt;&gt;</a></p>
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