Thomas Sowell

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Image:Thomas Sowell.jpg Thomas Sowell (born 30 June, 1930) is a prominent American economist, political writer, and conservative/libertarian [1] commentator. He is presently a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In 1990, he won the prestigious Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. Best-selling conservative British author, Paul Johnson, once described Sowell: "America's leading philosopher is Thomas Sowell. He has given me more than any other living American philosopher..."

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Education

Image:Thomas Sowell - A Personal Odyssey.jpg Sowell was born in North Carolina, where, he recounts, his encounters with white people were so limited that he didn't believe that "yellow" was a possible color for human hair (A Personal Odyssey, 2000), and later moved with his mother and siblings (his father died before he was born) to Harlem, New York City. There he attended the highly selective Stuyvesant High School, but dropped out when he moved out on his own at the age of 17 because of money problems and a deteriorating home environment.[2] He soon after served in the US Marine Corps as a photographer and pistol instructor. After his service, he earned an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College, an A.M. in Economics from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, known for its Chicago school of economics. He chose University of Chicago, he has said, because he wanted to study under George Stigler, who would later in 1982 win the Nobel Prize in Economics. At University of Chicago Thomas Sowell also took a course taught by Milton Friedman, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in economics. Sowell has taught at prominent American universities including Cornell University and UCLA, and since 1980 has been a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, where he holds the fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman. [3]

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Writings

Sowell is both a popular columnist and an academic economist.

Besides scholarly writing, Sowell has written books, articles and syndicated columns for a general audience, in such publications as Forbes Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and major newspapers. Sowell primarily writes on economic subjects, in which he generally advocates a free market approach to capitalism. In addition to this Sowell opposes Marxism providing a critique in his book Marxism: Philosophy and Economics. In this book he also makes the declaration that Marx never had a labor theory of value. Sowell also writes on racial topics and is a critic of affirmative action,[4],[5].

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Columns

He has a regular politics column that appears on the conservative Townhall.com website. He also regularly writes a column for Capitalism Magazine.

A selection of the liberal positions of which Sowell is a staunch critic:

He has defended racial profiling regarding terrorist suspects today. He is a supporter of free market and pro-growth economics.

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Books

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Brief notes on some of Sowell's thoughts

1) Empirical evidence and objective analysis of costs, benefits and trade-offs is sorely lacking in claims surrounding race, culture and society: In his writings Sowell has repeatedly emphasized the need for empirical evidence and objective assessments of data, as opposed to the sweeping generalizations, wishful thinking, and distorted or false evidence provided by numerous writers in the field of social policy and economics. In no field are these distortions greater than when the topic of race is discussed.

2) What counts in assessing a social or economic policy is not the stated intentions of promoters, but the actual end results produced on the ground: In his book "Marxism: Philosophy and Economics" Sowell shows that this was the outlook of Marx, and applies this "bottom line" approach to other social policies ranging from IQ Tests to affirmative action. In numerous cases he demonstrates that the stated aims of promoters had little relation to the actual results produced. In regard to affirmative action, for example, claims by proponents that it was a temporary measure, that it helped those categories of minorities less fortunate, that it would promote social harmony, et cetera, have all proven false when the empirical evidence is actually analyzed. Too often, Sowell points out, social policy is made on the basis of sweeping assumptions, arbitrarily-selected statistical data, and ideological dogma, where evidence is neither asked for nor offered.

3) Numerous factors determine income and education levels among American ethnic groups, and between genders, not the all purpose explanations of racism, or sexism: In books such as Markets and Minorities, Ethnic America, Race and Culture and many others, Sowell demonstrates the importance of such factors as geography, degree of urbanization, cultural structures, field of work, and other factors much more relevant than charges of “racism”. As with so much social policy, those who make such charges seldom present credible empirical evidence and often none is asked for. As for the “pay gap” between men and women, for example, Sowell’s “Civil Rights” book shows that most of said gap is based on marital status, not some sinister “glass ceiling” discrimination. Earnings for men and women of the same basic description (education, jobs, hours worked, marital status) were essentially equal, something that would not be possible under explanatory theories of “sexism”.

4) Internationally empirical evidence shows easy charges of colonialism and imperialism, or claims of genetic superiority to be sorely lacking in explaining technological or economic differences: Sowell’s trilogy, "Race and Culture", "Migrations and Culture" and "Conquests and Cultures" take his analysis up to international level comparing nations and minority groups within nations, particularly migrants. On an international scale, cultural factors are very important and some of the countries heavily subjected to imperialism and colonialism are themselves among the most prosperous- Britain for example which suffered under centuries of Roman colonialism and imperialism. Sowell shows that NON-WHITE nations like China were more advanced that those of Europe for centuries until comparatively recent times, and how the West borrowed freely from such nations. Within national settings, students of Asian origin in the West frequently outperform their white counterparts, undercutting white supremacist theories of inherent genetic superiority.

5) Many modern ideological struggles can be traced to two visions: the vision of the anointed and the vision of the constrained realist: These two visions encompass a range of ideas and theories, but essentially the vision of the anointed relies heavily on sweeping assumptions about human nature, distrust of decentralized processes like the free market, distrust of systematic processes that constrain human action, and missing or falsified/distorted empirical evidence. The constrained vision relies heavily on a less grand view of the goodness of human nature, and prefers the systematic processes of the free market, and the systematic processes of the rule of law and constitutional government. It distrusts sweeping theories and grand assumptions in favor of heavy reliance on solid empirical evidence and on time-tested structures and processes.

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Those Influenced by Sowell

It is worth noting that Sowell's book Race and Economics greatly influenced Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In 1975, when Thomas read the book, he found an intellectual foundation for his philosophy. Later on, Thomas said that the book changed his life.

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External links

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Articles and interviews

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