Posted on 04/28/2018 9:58:55 AM PDT by jazusamo
Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell, Basic Books, New York, March 20, 2018 (143 pages, $28.00, hardcover)
"Just the facts, ma'am." That was Joe Friday's interrogation refrain on Dragnet. The same comment could serve as the subtitle of Thomas Sowell's recent book, Discrimination and Disparities. Few works on politically explosive topics maintain such a consistent focus on empirical evidence while avoiding rhetorical jabs at opponents. On the other hand, empirical evidence cuts deep, especially when critics can't protest the author's "nasty" style. As radio talker Larry Elder observes, "[f]acts are to liberals what kryptonite is to Superman."
Sowell's title, if employed by a member of the leftist intelligentsia, would doubtless imply a causal link between statistical disparities and some form of discrimination – usually racial. Sowell, by contrast, marshals an abundance of evidence to show that this automatic assumption isn't justified. Focusing simply on statistical probabilities, Sowell notes that if five prerequisites are needed for success in a particular field, and if the chances are two out of three that any person will have each characteristic, the chance of possessing all five characteristics are still only one in eight – a calculation that helps explain why most pro golfers have never won a PGA tournament while Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods have collectively won over 200 times. Consequently, "[g]iven multiple prerequisites for many human endeavors, we should not be surprised if economic or social advances are not evenly or randomly distributed among individuals, groups, institutions or nations at any given time."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I love Thomas Sowell.
He was well into his 60’s when I became aware of him. His protege Dr. Walter Williams will be with us awhile longer, but who else has the chops and clout of these two?
I’d say that your source referencing Sowell is in error.
"When the chances of an individual having any one of the five characteristics is two out of three...(in the applicable distribution)...then the chances of having all five is two-thirds raised to the fifth power or about one in eight".
You overlook the possible fact that there may be sowell followers in the cabinet including the President himself as a follower.
Perhaps the baton has been passed
I hope so.
” if the chances are two out of three that any person will have each characteristic”
I think he meant to say “if the chances are two out of three that any person will have any one of these characteristics...”
He was a late bloomer. He was a Marine - and a marxist, BTW - during the Korean War. He was a photographer for the Marines (and photography is his hobby in retirement). He didn’t go to college until later, and he was 30 before he did an analysis of the “minimum” (the true minimum being zero when you aren’t employed) wage.When he figured out that the minimum wage law hurt low-earning people in general and blacks in particular, the scales fell away from his eyes and his naiveté toward government “help” dissipated. But his breakout “Knowledge and Decisions” didn’t hit until 1980, when he was about 50. That's when I first knew of him.
It says more about me than about him that I was late to learning about him. Glad we still have him with us and a library of his writings to learn from.
Pretty much no one I can recall.
I do not entirely agree with Sowell on certain issues, but I esteem him. I tend to agree more with Williams.
When Dr. Sowell explains economics, it makes sense. It seems so logical that you wonder why most of the other experts never notice these things, or are incapable of explaining them.
I think Trump reads a great deal.
LOL!
My “source” is the guy who wrote the book review.
Last Word? For a second there, I thought He died.
bump
Not hardly, pardner. :^)
Which is a fact that gores two of the Liberal’s sacred cows.
The Black race as unjustly oppressed and fathers as completely unnecessary.
Because it is an article of Democrat faith.
It is also a political weapon of mass destruction and this weapon has more than decimated the Black race in this country.
I always like it when Williams guest hosts Rush’s show and he has Sowell on. The Quest for Cosmic Justice and Vision of the Annointed were formative for me.
Sowell is a wise man with great insights.
If anyone hasn’t read his works I would encourage them to do so.
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