Guns Save Lives
If guns cost more lives than they save, we can always repeal the Second Amendment. But if guns save more lives than they cost, we need to know that,...
About: Thomas Sowell
Posts by Thomas Sowell
‘Me Too’ Republicans
Many ideas presented as "new" are just rehashes of old ideas that have been tried before — and have failed before. So it is no surprise that the recent...
Can It Happen Here?
The decision of the government in Cyprus to simply take money out of people's bank accounts there sent shock waves around the world. People far removed from that small...
Gifted Hands
A remarkable book titled Gifted Hands tells the personal story of Benjamin Carson, a black kid from the Detroit ghetto who went on to become a renowned neurosurgeon. ...
Intellectuals and Race: Part IV
Multiculturalism, like the caste system, paints people into the corner where they happened to have been born. But at least the caste system does not claim to benefit those...
Intellectuals and Race: Part III
Both the intellectuals' theory of genetic determinism as the reason for group differences in outcomes and their opposite theory of discrimination as the reason have created racial and ethnic...
Intellectuals and Race: Part II
Once we recognize that large differences in achievement among races, nations and civilizations have been the rule, not the exception, throughout recorded history, there is at least some hope...
Intellectuals and Race
Both the Progressives at the beginning of the 20th century and the liberals at the end started from the same false premise — namely, that there is something unusual...
Economic Mobility
Most people are not even surprised any more when they hear about someone who came here from Korea or Vietnam with very little money, and very little knowledge of...
Budget Politics
If Obama succeeds in maneuvering the Republicans into positions that cause them to lose control of the House of Representatives in the 2014 elections, then as a president who...
Shepherds and Sheep
Too many among today's intellectual elite see themselves as our shepherds and us as their sheep. Tragically, too many of us are apparently willing to be sheep, in exchange...
Guns and Pensions
A nation's choice between spending on military defense and spending on civilian goods has often been posed as "guns versus butter." But understanding the choices of many nations' political...
Random Thoughts
Random thoughts from the passing scene: I can't get excited by the question of whether Senator Robert Menendez had sex with a prostitute in Central America. It is her...
Central Planning: Prophets and Losses
A market economy with many competitors has incentives and constraints that are the opposite of those in a government monopoly. ...
The Federal Reserve: Prophets and Losses
The recent release of the Federal Reserve Board's transcripts of its deliberations back in 2007 shows that their economic prophecies were way off. How much faith should we put...
Whose Welfare?
If there is ever a contest for the law with the most grossly misleading title, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 should be a prime candidate, because the...
Hillary Clinton: Shouting Louder
An old-time trial lawyer once said, "When your case is weak, shout louder!" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shouted louder when asked about the Obama administration's story last fall...
Do Gun Control Laws Control Guns?
Gun control laws allow some people to vent their emotions, politicians to grandstand and self-righteous people to "make a statement" — but all at the cost of other people's...
Liberalism Versus Blacks
There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their...
The Role of ‘Educators’
About a hundred years ago, Professor John Dewey of Columbia University saw the role of the teacher, not as a transmitter of a society's culture to the young, but...