[The Raven]

Mr. Sowell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the author, most recently, of "Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded," just published by Basic Books.

[Phyto Chems]

WOW can this guy write, so a simple person can understand something, THANK YOU Dr. Sowell

[Cronos]

What Mr. Reagan's "tax cuts for the rich" actually cut were the tax rates per dollar of income. Out of rising incomes, the country as a whole -- including the rich -- paid more total taxes than ever before.

Exactly, a lower tax rate is a more affordable tax rate.

[tm22721]

I predict that the Democrats will successfully use the 'job exports' phobia to win this fall.

BUMP

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Econ 101 bump.

[Stallone]

Because Socialists don't think (they react), the impact of taxes on their own lives and the lives of their devotees has never been fully understood by these primitives.

Consider this:

If one is poor, AND DESIRES TO BE WEALTHIER, it will happen over time.

If there are higher taxes, it will take more time, as government intervenes to shutdown your wealth accumulation and stem your growth.

Lower taxes means achieving your wealth goals sooner.

What part of this escapes the Communist monkeys?

The part about desiring wealth.

Socialists don't want wealth themselves - they only want to prevent YOU from acquiring it.

Socialism is simply disguised envy.

[laredo44]

The shame of it is capitalism needs to be taught in every school at every level every day. But it isn't that is why the collectivists' sophistry continues to beguile a seemingly always ignorant public.

Tax rates and revenues are connected just like any other rate/revenue relationship. If higher rates translated into higher revenues, Ford would be charging $1 million per Taurus. But it can't and it knows why. Even in unregulated monoply situations there is a price that maximizes revenues.

[frossca]

Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and Gary Becker are other such exceptions in addressing a wider general audience, rather than confining what they say to technical analysis addressed to fellow economists and their students.

Of course, modesty prevented him from doing so, but the author could have added his own name to this depressingly short list.

[roses of sharon]

"Demagoguery beats data".

Lou Dobbs of CNN has a new show title.

[Cacique]

ping

[Sam Cree]

"Mr. Sowell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the author, most recently, of "Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded," just published by Basic Books."

If you've read it, how is it? Thanks for the post, btw.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Yeah, but who cares the only thing that matters is how I "feel" about these issues.

Here Dr Sowell tries vainly to have a ray of light penetrate the deliberately spread darkness of the RATmedia liars. Even here there are those claiming that NAFTA has cost us jobs.

What chance does the voice of truth have against the cacophony of lying ignorance spread 24/7 by the RATmedia?

[templar]

In reality, the number of jobs in the U.S. increased by millions after Nafta went into effect and the unemployment rate fell to low levels not seen in years. Behind the radically wrong predictions was a simple confusion between wage rates and labor costs,

Since Mr Sowell bemoans demagoguery beating date shouldn't he supply some statistics (data) along with this statement? Like how many jobs were created as a result of NAFTA and how many were lost as a result of NAFTA? And how much did our trade surplus with Mexico increase?

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>>What Mr. Reagan's "tax cuts for the rich" actually cut were the tax rates per dollar of income. Out of rising incomes, the country as a whole -- including the rich -- paid more total taxes than ever before.

Beautiful. Sowell reasons this out so well. This explains, with simple elegance, why the Laffer Curve is parabolic in shape and that raising taxes does not guarantee an increase in government revenue.

[the invisib1e hand]

It is a wholly different ball game when hundreds of millions of people individually keep track of the relatively few prices they need to know for their own decision-making in a market economy.

the fingers of The Invisible Hand do the walking.

great piece. hope someone can make a sound-byte out of it.

[Pharmboy]

This guy is a national treasure. He makes economics so approachable even I get it.

[InterceptPoint]

”Those who complain loudly about how many jobs have been "exported" to other countries because of international free trade totally ignore all the jobs that have been imported to the American economy because of that same free trade. Siemens alone employs tens of thousands of American workers and Toyota has already produced its ten millionth car in the U.S. Management guru Peter Drucker has said that this country imports far more jobs than it exports and no one has contradicted him. Indeed, those who are loudest in denouncing the exporting of jobs totally ignore the importing of jobs. “

This is the most important message in this article. Point this out to your friends and family and spread the word. If the fact that we import more jobs than we export sinks into the American consciousness then this nonsense about exporting jobs to India et al will hopefully whither on the vine even if it doesn't sink into Ralph Nader's thick skull.