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Thomas Sowell interview
- z9e 6y agoI’ve been reading a lot of his books lately, I cannot recommend enough. He does take a conservative approach to a lot of topics but the way he breaks things down helps you understand why. His book Basic Economics taught me more than any economics classes did in school.
- jiscariot 6y agoI also enjoyed Basic Economics. It really encourages thinking in terms of second order effects, unintended consequences or what Bastiat referred to as the unseen.
- treeman79 6y agoCity I lived in announced they were implementing rent freeze on all the mobile home parks. I explained to my parents (in a mobile home) that this was bad news. Few days later they, and everyone in city got an exviction notice. Mobile home parks all decided to close down and sell the land. Because of this book, this made perfect sense.
- ekianjo 6y agoBasic Economics is must read book - and he keeps improving on it. He releases new editions every few years with more recent examples of principles at work. He never stops working on it.
- seibelj 6y agoBasic Economics is required reading for anyone who wants to claim they understand economic principles. Even if you are a hard-left Marxist you must understand classical economic theories in order to feel comfortable debating them and more firm in your own beliefs.
- SantalBlush 6y agoBasic Economics isn’t even required reading in an intro econ course. It probably has value for its alternative perspectives on a lot of economic concepts, but to say it’s “required reading for anyone who wants to claim they understand economic principles” is pretty demonstrably false.
- zabana 6y agohow so ?
- sbuttgereit 6y agoPerhaps, but is that really a telling statement about the book or a more telling statement about the current state of academic economics?
- SantalBlush 6y agoIt’s a more telling statement about the book. “My book is too edgy for academia” is a worn out trope used by pseudo intellectuals. The real reason Sowell’s book is not required is because it does not involve the necessary rigor or mathematical methodology when introducing economic principles. If people want to pretend that’s elitist, so be it. Antivaxxers do the same thing.
- HPsquared 6y agoMathematical rigour doesn't necessarily translate to correctness. A mathematics-first approach encourages oversimplified assumptions. An example is the efficient markets hypothesis, which is the "spherical frictionless cow" of economics.
- SantalBlush 6y agoWe don’t use mathematical models because they are correct. We use them because they are more concretely measurable, and thus falsifiable. Without them, it becomes too easy to make vague statements about economics then make ad hoc explanations for why you were right. This is what so-called economists like Sowell do. >A mathematics-first approach encourages oversimplified assumptions. Wrong. It makes the oversimplified assumptions more clearly identifiable, instead of concealing them in prose which is not measurable. This is why they are superior, because we can clearly identify why they are wrong, and by how much. This is how science and the positivist framework improve our knowledge.
- sradman 6y ago> He does take a conservative approach to a lot of topics... Sowell's book A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles [1] is, ironically, a very good starting point in understanding what makes Sowell "conservative" (the Constrained Vision) vs "progressive" (the Unconstrained Vision). I think this is the work that impressed Steven Pinker. The categories get really messy, for example when he describes Marxism as a hybrid ideology, but the core idea is that people tend to believe either: 1. we are made of crooked timber and are made better by social structure, or 2. our potential is being held back by selfish oppressors/exploiters. Regardless of which vision drives you, I imagine Thomas Sowell would do very well in Bryan Caplan's Ideological Turing Test [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Conflict_of_Visions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Conflict_of_Visions [2] https://www.econlib.org/archives/2011/06/the_ideological.html https://www.econlib.org/archives/2011/06/the_ideological.htm...
- pinko 6y agoJust about every Marxist on the planet believes that we are "made better by social structure", so I think that characterization of what Marxists vs. non-Marxists believe is unhelpful.
- moojd 6y agoI haven't read Sowell but is this what he means by a 'hybrid ideology'? My impression of Marxists is that they view the world through both lenses and believe #1 can be achieved when #2 is solved through revolution or other means.
- sradman 6y agoA Conflict of Visions is not a book about Marxism, it is a description of a model to help us understand our ideological preferences. Like all models, it is wrong but sometimes it is useful.
- thu2111 6y agoIsn't that the opposite of what Marx believed? His world view was that a perfect society (communism) would arise when virtually all institutions were abolished, because in his view, the imperfections of human nature were all caused by "alienation" which itself came from the capitalist system. Actual communists tended to start out living that creed: they'd systematically destroy any existing institution. But then they'd find society didn't work at all without them, so they'd pretty rapidly build new institutions, that all happened to be controlled by them. Conservatives on the other hand are, by their nature, conservative about changing things. They tend to regard existing social structures as evolved and thus encoding great wisdom, even if it can't be easily articulated. To change those institutions is thus highly risky, even if it may not be immediately apparent why that is. This is the opposite of Marxism, which is a utopian ideology in which changing everything at once is not too much.
- datavirtue 6y agoThe correct approach which happens to feel conservative. He has other writings that explain your perspective.
- amachefe 6y agoIn this time of ultra conformism and cancel culture. It is refreshing to read an articulate alternative view points. Sowell has an experience of with sides of the debate and brings that experience to his writing. I can't recommend him enough
- gerland 6y agoOh, look. You got downvoted for stating an opinion. Gee, how could this happen? There definitely is no bias here, no sir.
- altcognito 6y agoWhat objective measure of conformism are you using?
- ajuc 6y agoSum of squares of the differences on all important issues between you and the average? So basically the same formula as variance in probability theory.
- altcognito 6y agoWell I mean at that level what counts as a difference and what’s the measure of that distance. I like that this is an attempt to define it even if is isn’t op and we do t actually have any actual numbers, past or present for comparison.
- ajuc 6y agoDoesn't seem to be that hard. On abortion it would be 1 if you're in favor of total ban and 0 if you're in favor of no regulation whatsoever. On free healthcare it would be 0 if you want no state involvement whatsoever and 1 if you want free tax-payed healthcare for every citizen. Etc. It doesn't even matter which way the 0 and 1 are.
- 6y ago
- tlear 6y agoBasic Economics is a very good book. Even if you taken University economics you will learn something and you will definitely learn how to explain things to those who did not. His debates are also great to watch highly recommended.
- smhmd 6y agoI very much prefer his older TV appearances to his more recent ones as he used to elaborate and present you with evidence on the spot. Nowadays, he keeps his input to a minimum on a given interview which is often unconvincing and borderline dismissive. I should keep in mind that he's 90 of age, though.
- claudiawerner 6y agoI strongly disagree with Sowell on almost every topic one can think of, either in terms of philosophy, society, or economics, but I admire his outspokenness and plain speaking, as the article notes he is known for, and it's a shame to read ad-hominem style attacks have been made against him. From what I can gather, however, the academic literature engages better with his arguments than journalists do.
- vixen99 6y agoBe interesting to see where you think he's wrong especially where his arguments are based on some uncompromising statistical facts.
- claudiawerner 6y agoIt's not that I disagree with his use of statistics, but my own philosophical framework (particularly inspired by the ideas of J.E. Roemer, Gerry Cohen, Nitzan & Bichler, and more recently Roberto Veneziani) sees serious problems (I think exploitation, domination, alienation, and insufficient focus on capabilities qua equality of opportunity) with not only capital in general but the state too. I can't easily recall the statistics or framework he used, though the disagreement between our frameworks of society (such as methodological individualism) was what stood out to me. I recall Pikkety making a more convincing case on the economic side, and Frederic Lordon making a more convincing case on the philosophical side. I also disagree with Sowell on his position on sweatshops (again, not rejecting the principle on which it is made, which is that the workers would not be employed otherwise, or have lower wages from domestic companies, but rather a disagreement on the reach and justification of that argument).
- googthrowaway42 6y agoFor what it's worth, Thomas Sowell was a Marxist up until he did a summer internship at the US Department of Labor. Excerpt from interview where he talks about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PDpCnMvvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PDpCnMvvw
- ZinniaZirconium 6y agoNonconformity is not permitted. Dissent is not tolerated. Disagreement will be punished.
- djrobstep 6y agoNonconformist is exactly how I wouldn't describe Thomas Sowell, whose economics and ideology is that of conformist conservative cliche. He's the kind of charlatan who'll tell you that property law that benefits rich folks is magical and natural but other law like taxation law is artificial regulation. I highly recommend Dean Baker's "The Conservative Nanny State" for a good debunking of this nonsense.
- alexarnesen 6y agoSorry, I can't resist: - "charlatan": I understand reasonable people can disagree with his analyses and policy recommendations... but how does this add to the discussion? - "property law that benefits rich folks is magical and natural": this doesn't sound like Sowell? Also, I was under the impression that property law benefits everyone in a society like the U.S., who has more than precisely zero posessions...? - "...law like taxation law is artificial regulation": is this a fair reading of Sowell? I have to admit I haven't covered all of his material, but from what I have encountered he puts forward points with more nuance
- djrobstep 6y agoHere's a typical Sowell quote: "I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money." Why did the rich man "earn" it but not the poor man? Why is it "somebody else's" when it's the poor man's money but not when it's the rich man's money? The answer is ideology. "Entitlements" and minimum wages work fine and save plenty of people from poverty but Sowell wants to scrap them. Why? Ideology. Apologetics for capitalism.
- jakebasile 6y agoWhere does he state that the poor did not earn their wages while the rich did? It seems to me he's saying that it is ok for everyone to keep their earnings across all income brackets.
- 6y ago
- zippie 6y agoCirca 2014, my economics mentor, who also mentored me in reading/trading free markets recommended reading Sowell. We discussed Sowell at length, and my primary take away was that Sowell’s world view was that the individual is much better at improving their own lives than any intervening external factors. All in all, an ardent believer in individual capitalism. That is a high level assessment. A more nuanced assessment is Sowell (like his mentor, Milton Friedman), is a true to earth anti-Keynesian. Fun fact, he considered himself a Marxist in his 20’s IIRC. There are lots of anti-Keynesian economists. Though I think what sets Sowell apart is the way he uses widely accessible data to justify every single view on public policy he has, and to make it easy to digest for someone without an economics background (no easy task). You can find a nice collection of his ideas online [1]. [1] http://www.tsowell.com/ http://www.tsowell.com/
- everybodyknows 6y agoCan you point us to some of his criticism of Keynes' views?
- deiznof 6y agoHis economics are sound, but I often find that his takes on social issues are extremely reductionist. His social views a lot of the time are just standard conservative views (and wrong IMO), I wish he wasn't being praised for that. One example being his view on systemic racism, which he described as: “It does remind me of the propaganda tactics of Joseph Goebbels in the age of the Nazis, in which he was supposed to have said that people will believe any lie if it’s repeated long enough and loud enough. And that’s what we’re getting.” I just can't take this sort of person seriously in regards to social issues. I just can't do it. And he does this all the time, all of his social views are just ultra-reductionist conservatives views that are identical to the things my hardcore mask-refusing conservative relatives post on facebook.
- alanaut24 6y agoWhat exactly do you disagree with?
- deiznof 6y agoThe idea that calling out systemic racism is like a Nazi propaganda tactic. Look up any of his other views on literally any social issues, it's just whatever Fox News-esque conservative would want to hear. Like, somehow it's not the government snatching people up in vans that is Nazi-like, it's actually the anti-racist protesters that are Nazi's to the genius brain of Thomas Sowell. How do people idolize this guy?
- ghufran_syed 6y agoif you define “conservative” as “wrong”, then I understand your point, but then your statement is trivial - it’s a statement of opinion, “sowell is wrong”, masquerading as evidence and using 12 times as many words as needed.
- deiznof 6y agoYes, I am giving my opinion on Thomas Sowell in a post about Thomas Sowell. My post is very short, like a third of it is a quote from him. And I didn't define conservative as wrong, I said he is a standard, non-special conservative AND wrong. What are your actual disagreements?
- jahaja 6y agoMLK was non-conformist. Aligning oneself with the hegemonic theories of the wealthy and powerful however, is not.
- richardARPANET 6y agoHe was also a creep.
- jahaja 6y agoHe was?
- schemy 6y agoYes, the FBI director sent him a letter to kill himself or have his affairs exposed.
- jahaja 6y agoHaving "affairs" doesn't make someone a creep, and certainly doesn't deserve even the slightest mention when assessing the man.
- NateEag 6y agoHow is whether he broke a solemn vow irrelevant to assessing him? Especially if it purportedly happened multiple times, and the religion he preached condemns that behavior so thoroughly?
- fareesh 6y agoLove Thomas Sowell. Basic Economics is a must read. An extremely intelligent man, and an inspiration to many all over the world.
- kypro 6y agoThomas Sowell has had a huge impact on me and my views on economics. I'm from a poor working-class background and am often irritated by the needless language barriers of academics. > “Too many academics write as if plain English is beneath their dignity,” Sowell once said, “and some seem to regard logic as an unconstitutional infringement of their freedom of speech.” Sowell is unique in this respect. He's book, "Basic Economics" is full of extremely relatable examples of economics in practice. It's one of the few books on economics that's a great read regardless of your background or level of academic achievement.
- mc32 6y agoI wish other writers would take this to heart. Reading The New Yorker it’s as if their language is a shibboleth and if they didn’t use it, it would alienate their audience for using average language, yet they are the same people who pontificate and pretend they advocate for the lower classes.
- Emma_Goldman 6y agoThe New Yorker is an upper-middle class publication. That is its target audience. Other magazines owned by the same media conglomerate, Conde Nast, are broadly similar in orientation: Vogue, Bon Appetit, Vanity Fair, GQ, Architectural Digest. I don't think they 'advocate for the lower classes', subjectively or objectively. I read very few socialists and communists in the New Yorker!
- BurningFrog 6y agoAs OP said,"pretend they advocate for the lower classes"
- Emma_Goldman 6y agoHence why I wrote 'subjectively or objectively'. They have no pretence to being a working-class magazine, or to advocating a working-class politics.
- olalonde 6y agoHis book "Intellectuals and Society" helped me better understand the difference of visions between the "right" and the left. Highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in politics.
- brickmort 6y agoI've read six Thomas Sowell books in the past few years. His book Basic Economics is a classic, but my favorite of his is Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One. It covers the things that the former does but, as the title suggests, applies it to a real-life scenario. He then walks through the scenario as it plays out to demonstrate his point to the reader. For example, when a city artificially lowers the rent, it makes apartments more affordable, but what happens afterwards? he would then play the scenario out as it affects tenants, landlords, and the rental market. I highly recommend it!
- sumtechguy 6y agoI like the book 'Economics in one lesson' by Henry Hazlitt which does something similar.
- chrisjarvis 6y agoIMO this book should be required required reading for college students.
- csours 6y agoDoes he talk about job creation? I'm curious because, as much as people talk about job creation, it doesn't seem to be part of most economics curricula.
- steve76 6y agoOvernight everyone turns into Perd Hapley.
- OrangeKnucles 6y agoI love Thomas Sowell.
- chmod600 6y agoOne important impact he had on my thinking is that he rejects groupings of people based on snapshots in time. For instance, it is very common to use income as a proxy for your economic success, and then to group people into quintiles, calling the bottom quintile "the poor". It seems reasonable, but it's wrong enough to lead to very wrong conclusions. A college student living on their own will appear to be a "poor household", even though many are likely to be in the top quintile later on in their life. These scenarios seem like exceptions, but when you add them up (as Dr. Sowell does), they show a very different picture. Following people (statistically) through their lives, and across generations, is a common theme in his work. It's harder to get good data than the snapshot-in-time approach, but he does the work, and it's so much more informative.
- nordsieck 6y ago> A college student living on their own will appear to be a "poor household", even though many are likely to be in the top quintile later on in their life. A great example from the other side of the spectrum is house sales: Anyone who needs to move and owns a house typically sells their house and buys a new one. During that year, they'll sometimes show up as having extremely high income. Depending on how often they move, this could have a real impact.
- mancerayder 6y agoI don't know if that's true. A house sale goes on a Schedule D, which gets pulled into Gross Income. I don't think Gross Income is what's used in those income calculations in the stats being discussed here?
- willcipriano 6y agoA researcher having the tools to exclude a particular type of income that throws off a statistic is a different matter than that researcher having the knowledge of those tools or the lack of ideological bias required to use them.
- HPsquared 6y ago
- htk 6y agoSomeone should create a list of books that comprise a beginners manual of living in a modern society, and “Basic Economics” would fit perfectly in this list.
- rmellow 6y agoI think a lot about this. Modern society is very different from what our ancestors grew up with. Any other recommendations on how to do well?
- chrisfinne 6y agoI usually think this, but then I'll see some random piece of advice from thousands of years ago, e.g. Seneca, Sun Tzu, Jesus, Plato and it seems very relevant. We've got a lot more bells and whistles these days, but maybe the absence of reddit, imgur, youtube and the general dopamine hamster-wheel allowed them to have a better understanding of human nature. Counter-point is that we are more likely to live longer and have to fight fewer threats of disease, famine, predators and war, so maybe we have more time to contemplate higher thoughts.
- jwlake 6y agoI've read a few Sowell books and I don't always agree with his conclusions but I do always enjoy the historical context he puts behind his arguments. I find most political pundits, journalists, etc to lack a grounding in history when they take opinions on various things. Sowell's books are usually give you a historical context and then the argument. It makes his books a good read even if you don't agree with them.
- ralusek 6y agoIt is such a travesty that Thomas Sowell is completely absent from the mainstream conversation about race. I also can't recommend Coleman Hughes enough, as someone who has in many ways taken the torch from Sowell. There are so many black Americans that have never heard a perspective on their standing aside from those presented within the context of critical race theory; a set of conclusions which are completely obliterated by people like Sowell, Hughes, Jason Riley, Larry Elder, Carol Swain, Desi-Rae Campbell, Josephine Mathias, Shelby Steele, Kmele Foster, Glenn Loury, Jonathan McWhorter, among many others in this realm, all of whom have largely differing opinions.
- Shraal 6y agoAm I the only one here who thinks that "Basic Economics" is overrated? I loved the first chapters but I didn't finish it because of his obvious bias against regulations. While I enjoyed his analyses of failed regulations, the book makes it seem like there're no successful market regulation laws in place and every attempt is doomed to be short-sighted like all his examples. This [1] review on Amazon from someone else expresses my concerns in more detail. Can someone recommend me an alternative book, that at least tries to be a little bit more well-balanced? I'll probably finish this book for the conservative perspective anyway but it doesn't seem like a good starting point despite its name. [1] https://www.amazon.de/gp/customer-reviews/RTG2TIDQB6AJI/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_btm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00PKS5ZR0#wasThisHelpful https://www.amazon.de/gp/customer-reviews/RTG2TIDQB6AJI/ref=...
- blub 6y agoI didn't finish it either, but mostly because of lack of time. However, I was also having an almost visceral reaction to his aversion to regulation, because I was comparing it to the situation that I know in some European countries and his claims seemed to clash with what I knew. I wouldn't dismiss the book just because of that, but it did make the lecture rather difficult because it was challenging my assumptions and knowledge quite strongly. I guess that's good :-) I like Ha-Joon Chang's "Economics: The User's Guide" as an introduction to economics. It's understandable, it has plenty of references and is written in a pleasant tone.
- Shraal 6y ago> I know in some European countries and his claims seemed to clash with what I knew. To be precisely, I would say his conclusions and the lack of other perspectives clashes with what I know about economy in European countries because I see how his reasoning makes sense in a vacuum. > I wouldn't dismiss the book just because of that, but it did make the lecture rather difficult because it was challenging my assumptions and knowledge quite strongly. I guess that's good :-) Exactly. I want to finish it someday for that exact reason. > I like Ha-Joon Chang's "Economics: The User's Guide" as an introduction to economics. It's understandable, it has plenty of references and is written in a pleasant tone. Thanks!
- viburnum 6y agoIs there anything new in Sowell? I thought he was a popularizer of traditional free-market economics.
- chmod600 6y agoI've read a number of his books, and I reflect on them regularly. They stand the test of time. More important than the specific facts and arguments in his books is that he checks up on the results of theories and policies. That's not common enough among social scientists and certainly not among politicians. Does "the peace process" produce peace? Do anti-poverty programs raise people out of poverty? Surely some do, and surely some don't. Figuring out which is which is critical to success -- preferably by learning from others' mistakes, but if not, at least learning from your own mistakes. It's too easy to get a sense of moral superiority just by supporting a policy with a noble intent, and then move on before the consequences arrive.
- peterpeppers 6y agoThe BIGGEST PROBLEM I have with Sowell is his constrained and myopic view with regards to history. He fails to acknowledge that over time... + free market capitalism == great inequality + socialism == great loss of liberty Government and civilizations that cycle slowly between these two as needed often last the longest (Ancient China, Rome, US). I'm sure Sowell knows this but it's more beneficial to one's career to be a leftist or rightist saying inflammatory things in the press instead of encouraging nuance, unity and balance.
- manfredo 6y agoComparing China and Rome to a modern economy is basically impossible. Those were agrarian societies whose net output per unit of territory was largely static, and determined by the amount of food that can be grown in the land. I don't think it's valid to categorize them as either socialist or capitalist societies. Marx agreed: he wrote of feudalism (and probably, by extension other agrarian civilizations) as a distinct kind of society that predated the capitalism that rose out of the industrial revolution.
- peterpeppers 6y agoThe fact that they were agrarian societies doesn't negate the fact that both China and Rome often cycled between socialist and capitalist styled policies. Feel free to substitute any modern economy in their place and you'll see a society that is capitalistic but uses socialist policies to constrain the amount of inequality (ie. healthcare, education, etc) driven by that capitalism. You're missing the point that balance between the two usually is best for the populace and for the stability of the government. This is a point that Thomas Sowell misses often as well. He strives for conformity with the conservative status quo.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoThat seems to miss a point, at least for Rome. Much of the work was done by slaves. Saying that it cycled to "capitalist styled policies" or "socialist styled policies" may apply to the free people, but for the slaves, life didn't change much. Given how much of the economy was driven by slave labor, I'm not sure that the swings changed things all that much.
- mr_overalls 6y agoI'm going to be a nonconformist myself and oppose the near-univeral approval of Sowell in this discussion. His book Basic Economics was the first book on econ that I read, and I was very impressed by it. It reaffirmed the rather right-wing political views that I'd inherited from my parents. However, after taking a few introductory econ classes at university and doing further reading on my own, Sowell starts to appear very ideologically driven. Sowell is a free-market fundamentalist, in that he opposes most government intervention in markets, and universally trusts laissez-faire capitalism to provide the optimal social & economic good for practically any situation. The problem with this position is that there's simply a ton of evidence that targeted government intervention provides far better outcomes in many situations. Another classic example is environmental pollution, a classic case of tragedy of the commons. On the topic of global warming, Sowell doesn't even try to address the issue. He belives climate change is a hoax perpetuated by Democrats. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/01/27/sowell-the-catchwords-climate-change-deniers-reveals-political-crusade/ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/01/27/sowell-the-catchwords... Sowell writes in a conversational style, which is great for accessibility for non-economics. However, he is rightly criticized as failing to cite rigorous studies to back up his opinions. For a more balanced view of basic economics, I'd highly recommend Principles of Economics by Greg Mankiw.
- bergstromm466 6y ago> I'm going to be a nonconformist myself and oppose the near-univeral approval of Sowell in this discussion. > It reaffirmed the rather right-wing political views that I'd inherited from my parents. I really did not know HN was this conservative. I am very surprised at all this unanimous approval of Sowell.
- mr_overalls 6y agoSame here - it's really quite baffling. Sowell even thinks that racial discrimination in hiring doesn't require government intervention. He constructs an argument in Basic Economics that market forces will rectify this kind of social ill.
- parasubvert 6y ago
- tlholaday 6y agoHas he changed his mind about marriage equality in the twenty years since he published this? https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2000/04-01/0001_thomas_sowell__fuzzy_thinking_in_.html https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2000/04-01/0001_thoma... Edit: maybe in the two decades that followed he learned that same-sex couples often raise children.
- ausbah 6y agowow, for someone who has gotten pretty much nothing but praise for his supposed amazing writing ability and though process - this article is a complete steaming dumpster fire
- jrexilius 6y agoHis writings do exactly what he states: Sowell insists that his work “stands or falls on its own merits or applicability” and is not “enhanced or reduced by [his] personal life.”. And they will continue to stand, objectively, for a long time to come. But his life and character are inspirational examples of self-determination and leadership that we need far more of. It is a shame he is not more often cited as an example that others can learn from in their personal lives.
- mcguire 6y ago"Even if 90 percent of all Muslims are fine people, and we admit 10,000 refugees from the Middle East, does that mean that we need not be concerned about adding a thousand potential terrorists — even after we have seen in San Bernardino what just two terrorists can do?*" Thomas Sowell, ladies and gentlemen. (https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/12/12/sowell-obama-rhetoric-san-bernardino/77169902/ https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/12/1...)
- loulou24 6y agoThe all too common argument that there's no problem since it's only a minute minority that is problematic is in contradiction with a huge chunk of human history. On this particular topic, we in Europe are increasingly frequently getting a painful refresher. Thanks for the link.
- jkhdigital 6y agoI have read more books by Thomas Sowell than by any other author, by a very wide margin. The one which has influenced me the most is the one which best captures the fundamental principles underlying his view of the world: A Conflict of Visions. I'd suggest it as required reading for anyone who wants to fully appreciate Sowell's work, as it provides insight into how he makes normative judgments about the merits of economic policy choices. In general Sowell does an excellent job of demonstrating through data that the outcomes of economic policies are often directly at odds with their stated objectives, but to really take a principled stand on what the proper objectives are in the first place you need a set of coherent first principles. A Conflict of Visions provides this backdrop, and once you understand that Sowell clearly adheres to the "constrained" vision of humankind then his other works fall into their proper context. It's a great book, but not above criticism, so in the interest of thoughtful inquiry I'd encourage anyone to read the book as well as this review by Bryan Caplan, economics professor at George Mason University who is also an economic libertarian: http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/sowell http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/sowell
- supernova87a 6y ago2 things that I liked him for (after reading/hearing just cursorily -- I would like to read more): 1) His perspectives on how the unfairnesses that life throws at you are part of, and incentivize you towards making your life better and not something that you should simply seek to eliminate without knowing what the unintended consequences are. See his essay on "Cosmic Justice": https://www.tsowell.com/spquestc.html https://www.tsowell.com/spquestc.html 2) That if we seek to have a sustainable approach to how society is managed, maybe we need to set up the reasonable rules and structures of how we want outcomes to be guided by, and not change them willy-nilly because of who happens to benefit at the time. There will be winners and losers no matter what. It's tiring to switch your rules every time you don't like who came out ahead.
- AlphaOne1 6y agoI agree that his Basic Economic book is very easy to read. It completely opened my eyes as to how to think about economics in high school when I first read. I recently watched an interview about his latest book, which he just published at 90 years of age, on charter schools. It was fascinating when he goes through the data showing that when charter schools were used in New York, the race gap disappeared. All the special interests involved in schooling as well as lack of accountability is quite depressing. Here is a transcript: https://www.hoover.org/research/economist-looks-90-tom-sowell-charter-schools-and-their-enemies-1 https://www.hoover.org/research/economist-looks-90-tom-sowel...
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago> As Kevin Williamson observed, Sowell is “that rarest of things among serious academics: plainspoken.” So rare, and so precious.
- YesThatTom2 6y agoHe repeats conservative propaganda so that conservatives can quote him and pretend they aren’t racist because they have one black friend. For example there was a recent twitter flap because he repeated an old invalidated conservative talking point about reproductive rights and tons of white clconservatives jumped on board saying “see! The black community agrees!” This is all a strategy to manufacture consent.
- tptacek 6y agoIt's difficult for me to come up with a charitable reason why Sowell, an arch-conservative, is somehow interesting to HN (and, to be fair, I'd say the same thing about a sudden surge in interest in Brad DeLong or Matt Bruenig), or why we'd vote City-Journal, the house organ of the Manhattan Institute, to the front page. I think it's especially dicey given the climate. If you're curious about Sowell, some policy positions worth noting: opposition to marriage equality on the basis of heterosexual marriage protecting women from the impact of their declining physical appearance as they age, full-throated support for the Iraq war, repeated comparisons of Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler, a spicy "Brown v. Board of Education was decided wrongly" take, opposition to criminal justice reform and particularly decarceration, support for Donald Trump in 2016 (and after), and opposition to the building of mosques. It's not that these positions are beyond the pale (well: the mosque thing is), but rather that they're cut directly out of the coupon book of 1990s conservative think-tankism. Many dozens of public intellectuals held (and still hold) this same revanchist culture war portfolio of positions. Why is Sowell, long retired, so enthusiastically trotted out?
- _fq4v 6y ago> support for Donald Trump in 2016 (and after) Um no.. Sowell endorsed Ted Cruz in the primaries and wrote quite the scathing critique of Donald Trump: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/16/tragedy_and_choices__129669.html https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/16/traged... In Sowell's own words: > Some seem to think that Donald Trump's lead in the polls and in the New Hampshire primary make him the most electable candidate, even if he often acts like an overgrown spoiled brat. Secondly: > opposition to criminal justice reform and particularly decarceration, is a common position amongst blacks in America. Many civil rights advocates fought for tougher criminal sentencing in the 80s and 90s, including many in Congress, such as Charlie Rangel. In this regard, Sowell's position is more in line with the views of African Americans of a certain age, instead of his conservative beliefs (recall, many libertarians were against the war on drugs: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/praise-impure-alliances/614695/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/praise-imp...) > a spicy "Brown v. Board of Education was decided wrongly" take Here is Sowell's opinion: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/5160 http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/5160. As someone who himself went to a segregated school, I feel he is entitled to his opinion on whether or not the children who went there feel inferior, which is the reasoning behind Warren's majority opinion. That being said, Sowell is extremely pro-school-choice and generally against publicly run schools, so in Sowell's America schools would have been naturally desegregated due to market forces.
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago> The prevailing notion today is that your skin color, your chromosomes, your sexual orientation, and other markers of identity determine how you think. And it is generally those who see themselves as the most freethinking—“woke,” while the rest of us are asleep—who apply the strictest and most backward formulas. Beautifully said.
- theicfire 6y agoThomas Sowell is a critic of the climate change/environmental science initiatives, and it's one of the reasons I heavily question his other views. Here's a 3 min video of him talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweblFwt-BM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweblFwt-BM The points he makes are quite fair. The science isn't perfect, yes. Often, people try to hide that the science isn't perfect, too. But the impact is roughly the product of the magnitude of the impact and the probability of the event. In this case, the magnitude is enormous and the probability is less than 100% but seemingly quite large. Dr. Sowell seems to simply argue that climate reports suggest that the probability is higher than it truly is. But if a report suggest 95%, and Dr. Sowell thinks it's more like 40%, the core issue is still enormous. I would want him to talk about why he thinks the huge effects of anthropogenic climate change are such a vanishingly small probability to the point that we shouldn't do anything about it. Here's another article by him: https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2002/06-08/0002_thomas_sowell__global_warming_bui.html https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2002/06-08/0002_thoma...
- woodandsteel 6y agoIf I understand the article correctly, Sowell thinks that blacks have a highly inferior status today because they have a culture that is not suited to succeeding in modern society. If we assume Sowell is correct about that, then my reply is that culture is not fixed. For instance, Western European culture is vastly different than it was 500 years ago. So the question is why blacks have the particular culture they do at present. Does Sowell address this?
- kyrra 6y agoHe's written a lot of books, and I'd say these are some that dive into this topic: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36222735-discrimination-and-disparities https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36222735-discrimination-... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3040.Black_Rednecks_and_White_Liberals https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3040.Black_Rednecks_and_... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50623786-charter-schools-and-their-enemies https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50623786-charter-schools...
- woodandsteel 6y agoI have far too many books to read. Could you perhaps give me a summary of his views?