Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowellis an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth30 June 1930
CityGastonia, NC
CountryUnited States of America
philosophy political income-distribution
Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.
zero real minimum-wage
The real minimum wage is zero.
philosophy alternatives purpose
Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. It's purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating resources which have alternative uses. It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.
blood race political
What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?
fashion government taste
The government is indeed an institution, but "the market" is nothing more than an option for each individual to chose among numerous existing institutions, or to fashion new arrangements suited to his own situation and taste.
government wish facts
The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.
government littles assumption
Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex system for granted, and just improve the things that are not so good. What is lacking in this conception is any sense that a society, an institution, or even a single human being, is an intricate system of fragile inter-relationships, whose complexities are little understood and easily destabilized.
track worry political
Our economic problems worry me much less than our political solutions, which have a far worse track record.
past hands age
For the anointed, traditions are likely to be seen as the dead hand of the past, relics of a less enlightened age, and not as the distilled experience of millions who faced similar human vicissitudes before.
decision liberty outcomes
Why the transfer of decisions from those with personal experience and a stake in the outcome to those with neither can be expected to lead to better decisions is a question seldom asked, much less answered.
real gun mass-shootings
The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority that those beliefs give them.
constitution protect
The Constitution cannot protect us unless we protect the Constitution.
economics concerned
Economics is concerned with what emerges, not what anyone intended.
thinking government law
It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into law.