Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | R | Regulation

Sowell strikes again.

Article Excerpt
ECONOMIC FACTS AND FALLACIES

By Thomas Sowell

262 pages; Basic Books, 2008

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Over his long and fruitful career, Thomas Sowell has been a steadfast opponent of the sort of sloppy, illogical thinking that gives rise to so many of America's social and economic problems. He has been called "insensitive" and denounced for his insistence on digging for the truth rather than just going along with popular notions. Many years ago, Sowell wrote, "Before you can be a partisan of the poor, you must first be a partisan of the truth." That is absolutely right, but it puts him at odds with most of our political establishment.

Sowell's most recent book, Economic Facts and Fallacies, is a wonderfully useful volume that highlights some of the most destructive fallacies that bedevil us and cause politicians to embrace policies that seem superficially beneficial but actually make matters worse. Battling against fallacies with facts is a difficult task. He writes:

There are many reasons why fallacies have staying power, even in the face of hard evidence against them. Elected officials, for example, cannot readily admit that some policy or program that they advocated, perhaps with great fanfare, has turned out badly, without risking their whole careers. Similarly for the leaders of various causes and movements.

Indeed; when was the last time you heard a politician say something like this: "I supported the minimum wage increase, but now see that it's a policy based on fallacious thinking. Sorry for the mistake"?

The book is organized around six topic areas: urban issues, male-female differences, education, income,...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!