Thomas Sowell Quotes - Page 18

Quotes about:

• Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural inducement. The less of one, the more of the
  others. The degree of freedom that is possible is therefore tied to the extent to which people respond to persuasion or inducement.

  Thomas Sowell

  People, Choices, Degrees

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• Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and demand in a free market: (1) increased use of the product or service whose price is controlled, (2) Reduced supply of the same product or service, (3) quality deterioration, (4) black markets.

  Thomas Sowell

  Black, Quality, Deterioration

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• All justice is inherently social. Can someone on a desert island be either just or unjust?

  Thomas Sowell

  Islands, Justice, Desert

  Thomas Sowell (2001). “The Quest for Cosmic Justice”, p.3, Simon and Schuster

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• If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with the vision of the anointed often see these constraints as only arbitrary impositions, things from which they-and we all-can be 'liberated.' The social disintegration which has followed in the wake of such liberation has seldom provoked any serious reconsideration of the whole set of assumptions-the vision-which led to such disasters. That vision is too well insulated from feedback.

  Thomas Sowell

  Civilization, Vision, Arbitrary

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• Right after liberal Democrats, the most dangerous politicians are country club Republicans.

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Clubs, Republican

  "Random Thoughts". townhall.com. August 26, 2008.

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• One of the most fashionable notions of our times is that social problems like poverty and oppression breed wars. Most wars, however, are started by well-fed people with the time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions, and to nurse real or imagined grievances.

  Thomas Sowell

  Dream, Real, War

  Thomas Sowell (2002). “Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• Against the background of the Obama administration' s negotiating what can turn out to be the most catastrophic international agreement in the nation's history, to complain about protocol is to put questions of etiquette above questions of annihilation.

  Thomas Sowell

  Agreement, Complaining, Administration

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• Each day, as I take various pills, I realize that without those pills I might not be alive -- and, if I were, life would not be worth living. Yet those who produce these medications are under constant attack from people who produce nothing.

  Thomas Sowell

  Medicine, People, Pills

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• Too many policies, programs and institutions are judged by what they are supposed to do, rather than by what they actually do and the consequences of their actions.

  Thomas Sowell

  Action, Program, Institutions

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• The Congressional Budget Office has been embarrassed repeatedly by making projections based on the assumption that tax revenues and tax rates move in the same direction.

  Thomas Sowell

  Moving, Office, Assumption

  "Fiscal Cliff Debate Is About Size of Government, Not Taxing 'the Rich'" by Thomas Sowell, www.realclearpolitics.com. December 4, 2012.

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• Like other magicians, Obama has chosen his distractions well. The insurance industry is currently his favorite distraction as scapegoats, after he has tried to demonize doctors without much success . . . . Obama even gets away with saying things like having a system to 'keep insurance companies honest' - and many people may not see the painful irony in politicians trying to keep other people honest.

  Thomas Sowell

  Doctors, People, Trying

  "Whose Medical Decisions?: Part IV" by Thomas Sowell, www.realclearpolitics.com. August 19, 2009.

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• The real minimum wage is zero.

  Thomas Sowell

  Zero, Real, Minimum Wage

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Controversial Essays”, p.55, Hoover Press

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• Time was when people used to brag about how old they were - and I am old enough to remember it.

  Thomas Sowell

  People, Remember, Enough

  Thomas Sowell (1999). “Barbarians Inside the Gates--and Other Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them.

  Thomas Sowell

  Needs, Incentives, Inspired

  Thomas Sowell (2010). “Basic Economics 4th Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy”, p.45, Basic Books

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• More than half of all people filing income tax forms use someone else to prepare the forms for them. Then they have to sign under penalty of perjury that these forms are correct. But if they were competent to determine that, why would they have to pay someone else to do their taxes for them in the first place?

  Thomas Sowell

  People, Income, Use

  "Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 13, 2006.

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• Contrary to the vision of the left, it was the free market which produced affordable housing - before government intervention made housing unaffordable.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, Vision, Affordable Housing

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.92, Hoover Press

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• What does calling this medical care legislation "historic" mean? It means that previous administrations gave up the idea when it became clear that the voting public did not want government control of medical care. What is "historic" is that this will be the first administration to show that it doesn't care one bit what the public wants or doesn't want.

  Thomas Sowell

  Mean, Government, Ideas

  "Unhealthy Arrogance". www.realclearpolitics.com. December 29, 2009.

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• If we become a people who are willing to give up our money and our freedom in exchange for rhetoric and promises, then nothing can save us.

  Thomas Sowell

  Giving Up, People, Promise

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• Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government had spent more.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, Doe, Conservative

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• What sense would it make to classify a man as handicapped because he is in a wheelchair today, if he is expected to be walking again in a month, and competing in track meets before the year is out? Yet Americans are generally given 'class' labels on the basis of their transient location in the income stream. If most Americans do not stay in the same broad income bracket for even a decade, their repeatedly changing 'class' makes class itself a nebulous concept. Yet the intelligentsia are habituated, if not addicted, to seeing the world in class terms.

  Thomas Sowell

  Men, Years, Class

  Thomas Sowell (1995). “The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy”, Basic Books

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• What 'eminent domain' laws mean in practice is that politicians have a right to seize your property and turn it over to someone else, in order to gain campaign contributions and win votes.

  Thomas Sowell

  Mean, Winning, Order

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• We should listen first and foremost to our own experience We should stop looking for saviors.Society has not existed for thousands of years because it had a succession of saviors. It's existed because it has institutions and processes through which people can realize their own goals.

  Thomas Sowell

  Years, People, Goal

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• Apparently almost anyone can do a better job of educating children than our so-called 'educators' in the public schools. Children who are home-schooled by their parents also score higher on tests than children educated in the public schools. ... Successful education shows what is possible, whether in charter schools, private schools, military schools or home-schooling. The challenge is to provide more escape hatches from failing public schools, not only to help those students who escape, but also to force these institutions to get their act together before losing more students and jobs.

  Thomas Sowell

  Jobs, Children, Military

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• Another way of verbally masking elite preemption of other people's decisions is to use the word 'ask'-as in 'We are just asking everyone to pay their fair share.' But of course governments do not ask, they: tell. The Internal Revenue Service does not 'ask' for contributions. It takes.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, People, Decision

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• It is hard to read a newspaper or watch a television newscast without encountering someone who has come up with a new 'solution' to society's 'problems.'

  Thomas Sowell

  Watches, Television, Problem

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