Economist Thomas Sowell wrote his final column this week.
Fortunately, he’s not dead; he’ll keep writing books, keep giving interviews. We
just won’t have his frequent short pieces of wisdom to count on each week.
 |
| Thomas Sowell image from here |
He’s 86—and only retiring from the column. He said last
spring he was on a photography trip to Yosemite with friends. For four days
they had no access to news. And he really enjoyed that. While writing the
column, he has felt obligated to keep current on news and events so he could
comment intelligently about them. And now he’s letting that go.
I relate to that, since I write regularly here, and it does
a good part of the time relate to current events. During this holiday season,
surrounded by family, I’ve mostly tuned out radio and newspapers, and even much
social media—and it is refreshing.
Thomas Sowell has me by nearly two decades, after an
extraordinarily prolific career, so I think he’s entitled to the relief from
news. Back before writing this blog, when I was writing a few pieces a year
(mainly in defense of traditional marriage), I would take hours—weeks
sometimes—to write a piece. I marveled at how Thomas Sowell could put out something
so profound, well-researched, and well-reasoned a time or two a week.
Eventually I learned that there are differences in writing
when you’re doing something quick and regular. I don’t polish as much. I don’t
provide exhaustive footnotes as often. I just try to put out a complete
thought. I think that’s what Thomas Sowell has done as well, compared to his
books, which are longer, more polished, and more referential to specific
research. It’s just that he has a huge body of research in his head, and all
the thought connections he’s made over many thoughtful decades.
I mentioned his Basic
Economics as a favorite influence in my very first blog post. I’ll probably continue to refer to
his writings as a model and a resource.
In celebration of his column retirement, I thought I’d share
some Thomas Sowell wisdom.
First, if you have half an hour, he did an interview on the
Larry Elder radio show on Wednesday. Their conversation covers a wide range,
and gives the flavor of his wit and wisdom:
I wrote about a Thomas Sowell interview on Uncommon
Knowledge in 2015, following the publication of his book Wealth, Poverty, and Politics. Worth a re-read.
And now I’ll share a few of the quotes I’ve saved in my
Spherical Model quote file:
The
first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to
satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the
first lesson of economics.
Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant
that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
Character
is what we have to depend on when we entrust power over ourselves, our children
and our society to government officials.
We cannot
risk all that for the sake of the fashionable affectation of being more
non-judgmental than thou.—(article following resignation of NY governor Elliot
Spitzer)
Someone once said that a
con man's job is not to convince skeptics but to enable people to continue to
believe what they already want to believe.—(article on Obama’s “faith” speech
3-19-08)
One of the biggest taxes
is one that is not even called a tax—inflation. When the government spends
money that it creates, it is transferring part of the value of your money to
themselves. It is quiet taxation but often heavy taxation, falling on everyone,
no matter how low their incomes might be.—(10-29-08)
How
have intellectuals managed to be so wrong, so often? By thinking that because
they are knowledgeable—or even expert—within some narrow band out of the vast
spectrum of human concerns, that makes them wise guides to the masses and to
the rulers of the nation.
But
the ignorance of PhDs is still ignorance and high-IQ groupthink is still
groupthink, which is the antithesis of real thinking.—(11-11-08)
The medical
care stampede is about much more than medical care, important as that is. It is
part of a whole mindset of many on the left who have never reconciled
themselves to an economic system in which how much people can withdraw from the
resources of the nation depends on how much they have contributed to those
resources.—(8-19-09)
There is
usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid
people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high
IQs.—(9-29-09)
People who call differences "inequities" and
achievements "privilege" leave social havoc in their wake, while feeling
noble about siding with the less fortunate.—(5-4-2010)
Among
people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, those who are likely to be most
disappointed are those who thought that they were voting for a new post-racial
era. There was absolutely nothing in Obama's past to lead to any such
expectation, and much to suggest the exact opposite. But the man's rhetoric and
demeanor during the election campaign enabled this and many other illusions to
flourish.
Still, it
was an honest mistake of the kind that decent people have often made when
dealing with people whose agendas are not constrained by decency, but only by
what they think they can get away with.
On race,
as on other issues, different people have radically different views of Barack
Obama, depending on whether they judge him by what he says or by what he does.—(7-19-2010)
Much of the social history of the Western world over
the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded
good.
The vocabulary of
the political left is fascinating. For example, it is considered to be
"materialistic" and "greedy" to want to keep what you have
earned. But it is "idealistic" to want to take away what someone else
has earned and spend it for your own political benefit or to feel good about
yourself.—(3-22-2011)
Even if
it could be proved that judges who are making rulings that go counter to the
written law produce better results in those particular cases than following the
letter of the law would have, that does not make society better off. When laws
become unreliable and judges unpredictable, lawsuits become a bonanza for
charlatans, who can force honest people to settle out of court, for fear of
what some judge might do.—(3-22-2011)
The Obama
administration seems to be following what might be called "the Detroit
pattern"-- increasing taxes, harassing businesses, and pandering to
unions. In the short run, it got mayors re-elected. In the long-run, it reduced
Detroit from a thriving city to an economic disaster area, whose population was
cut in half, as its most productive citizens fled.—(3-22-2011)
Since the
government creates no wealth, it can only transfer the wealth required to hire
people. Even if the government creates a million jobs, that is not a net
increase in jobs, when the money that pays for those jobs is taken from the
private sector, which loses that much ability to create private jobs.—(7-6-2011)
People who say they want a government program because "I don't
want to be a burden to my children" apparently think it is all right to be
a burden to other people's children.—(8-2-2011)
Socialism in general has a record
of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
Like so many
people, in so many countries, who started out to "spread the wealth,"
Barack Obama has ended up spreading poverty.—(10-17-2011)
Politicians can
solve almost any problem—usually by creating a bigger problem. But, so long as
the voters are aware of the problem that the politicians have solved, and
unaware of the bigger problems they have created, political
"solutions" are a political success.—(10-17-2011)
Let's stop and think, if only for the novelty of
it.—(8-29-2012)
The black
family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has
disintegrated in the wake of the liberals' expansion of the welfare state. Most
black children grew up in homes with two parents during all that time but most
grow up with only one parent today.—(1-15-2013)
There are no
magic solutions [to getting out of poverty], at least none that I know of.
Common sense, common decency, work and honesty are about all I can come up
with. These things are not fancy or new or politically correct. But they have a
better track record than much that we are doing today.—(5-20-2014, “Poverty and
Snowstorms”)
I am so old that I can remember when most of the
people promoting race hate were white.—(“Who Is Racist?” 7-2014 National Review)
If you don’t
understand the issues, but want to do your patriotic duty, then stay home on
election night, whether in the primaries or in the national election in
November. Uninformed voters turn elections into a game of playing Russian
roulette with the future of America.—(1-30-2016)
The old
adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been
updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and
French fries! Moreover some politician who wants his vote will declare all
these things to be among his “basic rights.”—(http://l.prageru.com/29VdtqE)
No comments:
Post a Comment