Consider the following hypothetical situation. Let’s say it was the federal government that had mandated segregation and not the states. Do you believe for one second that Martin Luther King Jr. would have opposed states nullifying that particular federal law? Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to crush Jim Crow and I find it patently absurd that he would neglect a non-violent method of doing so if the situation had been as described. I would submit that it was racism that Martin Luther King Jr. opposed much more than any legal justification those racists put forth to maintain segregation. And for anyone who thinks such a scenario is unbelievable—because the federal government can be trusted on racial issues—allow me to enlighten you.
Thomas Sowell's archives
Nullification and Civil Disobedience
under: Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Trust
Tags: Adolf Hitler, affirmative action, anti-semitism, Brown vs the Board of Education, civil rights, Civil Rights Act of 1964, conscription, Constitution, eugenics, fugitive slave act, healthcare, healthcare reform, Henry David Thoreau, interposition, Iraq War, James Madison, Jim Crow, John Calhoun, Kentucky Resolutions, Martin Luther King Jr., medical marajuana, Mohandas Ghandi, nullification, Nullification Crisis, Patriot Act, Plessy vs Ferguson, R.J. Rummel, racism, Real ID Act, segregation, slavery, succession, tariffs, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Sowell, Tom Woods, War on Drugs
Intellectuals and Economics: Thomas Sowell Cuts Through the Fog
Intellectuals have some very bad incentives according to renowned economist Thomas Sowell. He defines an intellectual as someone’s who’s end product are ideas (i.e. not an engineer, scientist, medical doctor, etc.). While admitting that he himself is an intellectual, he condemns that lunacy that pervades the intellectual community. The problem is there are no checks on their ideas. If an engineer builds a bridge and it collapses, that engineer has failed. However, if an intellectual pushes for certain policies that turn out to be disastrously wrong, they rarely face any ramifications for this whatsoever.
Did the National Health Service Let 20,000 Brits Die?
“Up to 20,000 people have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the [British National Health Service], it was revealed yesterday,” according to Daniel Martin of The Daily Mail. These unnecessary or unnecessarily quick deaths had to do with patients being refused cancer medication for rare forms of cancer.
under: Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Trust
Tags: Britain, cancer, costs, Daniel Martin, healthcare, healthcare reform, National Health Service, National Institute of Clinical Excellence, NHS, NICE, prices, prices vs. costs, Singapore, single-payer healthcare, The Daily Mail, Thomas Sowell
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: The Wage Gap
The truth is that businesspeople discriminate in favor of the color green; money. Market economies discriminate mightily against those who discriminate. If it were true that men make approximately 33% more for the same work, companies that predominantly hired women would crush companies that predominantly hired men.
under: Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Trust
Tags: Denise Venable, discrimination, Equal Pay Day, Fair Pay Act, feminism, feministing.com, Free Market, gender socialism, income, James T. Bennett, Jessica Valenti, John Stossel, male-female differences, marriage, martial asymmetry hypothesis, materialism, Nancy Pelosi, National Center for Policy Analysis, part time jobs, racism, sexism, Thomas Sowell, trade offs, wage gap, wage gap myth, Warren Farrell
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: Income Stagnation
It is an undisputed fact that the average real income… of American households rose by only 6 percent from 1969 to 1996… But it is an equally undisputed fact that the average real income per person in the United States rose by 51% over that very same period. How can both these statistics be true? Because the average number of people per household was declining during those years.
under: Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Trust
Tags: Alan Reynolds, All Things Being Equal Fallacy, Appeal to Authority Fallacy, consumption, corporatism, household income, income, income stagnation, lurking variable, Michael Moore, neo-liberalism, Paul Krugman, per capita income, standard of living, Thomas Sowell, U.S. Census Bureau, United States
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: A Primer
Statistics are often seen as infallible, though. Unfortunately, the truth is statistics are often very difficult to gather and compute in a methodologically sound way. Furthermore, there are a host of reasons a particular group may want to fudge these numbers. If anything, I hope this series will shine some light on how statistics can be flawed, and perhaps raise some healthy skepticism.
under: Complete Whimsy, Game Theory, Live and Learn, Trust
Tags: Al Gore, Alan Reynolds, austrian economics, Benjamin Disraeli, deconstructionism, food stamps, healthcare reform, immigration, income inequality, Keynesian Economics, lurking variable, Mark Twain, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, post hoc ergo propter hoc, Ronald Reagan, statistics, technology, Thomas Sowell, Washington Consensus
Thomas Sowell on the Housing Crisis
You can see my take on the housing/financial crisis in Part 1 and Part 2 of my series on the subject. In this video, renowned economist, Thomas Sowell gives a brief explanation of who caused the housing bubble. A longer version can be found here and you can check out his new book on the subject; The Housing Boom and Bust.
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