Posted on 01/20/2021 3:55:45 AM PST by Kaslin
Joe Biden says he'll "advance racial equity" by making "bold investments" in "Affordable Housing," aiding "businesses owned by Black and Brown people," establishing an "Equity Commission," etc.
Gosh, that'll do it.
Others demand reparations for slavery, more social programs and defunding the police.
Yet, economist Thomas Sowell says, "I haven't been able to find a single country in the world where policies advocated for Blacks in the United States lifted any people out of poverty."
Sowell's a Black man who grew up in poverty. His father died before he was born, and his mother died soon after.
"We were much poorer than the people in Harlem and most anywhere else today," he reflects. "But in the sense of things you need to get ahead, I was enormously more fortunate than most Black kids today."
That's because he discovered the public library. "When you start getting in the habit of reading when you're 8 years old, it's a different ballgame!"
Exploring Manhattan, he saw disparities in wealth. "Nothing in the schools or most of the books seemed to deal with that. Marx dealt with that," says Sowell. He then became a Marxist.
What began to change his beliefs was his first job at the U.S. Department of Labor. He was told to focus on the minimum wage.
At first, he thought the minimum wage was good: "All these people are poor, and they'll get a little higher income. That'll be helpful," he reasoned.
But then he realized: "There's a downside. They may lose their jobs."
His colleagues at the Labor Department didn't want to think about that. "I came up with how we might test this. I was waiting to hear 'congratulations!' (but) I could see these people were stunned. They'd say, 'oh, this idiot has stumbled on something that would ruin us all.'"
Once he saw how government workers often cared more about preserving their turf than actually solving problems, Sowell rethought his assumptions.
He turned away from Marxism and became a free market economist, writing great books like "Basic Economics," "Race and Culture" and my favorite title, "The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy."
Today's self-anointed leaders talk constantly about how America's "systemic racism" holds Black people back.
"Propaganda," Sowell calls it. "If you go back into the '20s, you find that married-couple families were much more prevalent among Blacks. As late as 1930, Blacks have lower unemployment rates than whites."
But if systemic racism was the cause of inequality, he says, "All these things that we complain about, and attribute to the era of slavery, should've been worse in the past than in the present!"
Sowell says the bigger cause of Black Americans' problems today is government welfare initiated in the 1960s. The programs encouraged people to become dependent on handouts.
"You began to have the mindset that goes with the welfare state," Sowell says. "No stigma any longer attached to being on relief." But then he realized: "There's a downside. They may lose their jobs."
His colleagues at the Labor Department didn't want to think about that. "I came up with how we might test this. I was waiting to hear 'congratulations!' (but) I could see these people were stunned. They'd say, 'oh, this idiot has stumbled on something that would ruin us all.'"
Once he saw how government workers often cared more about preserving their turf than actually solving problems, Sowell rethought his assumptions.
He turned away from Marxism and became a free market economist, writing great books like "Basic Economics," "Race and Culture" and my favorite title, "The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy."
Today's self-anointed leaders talk constantly about how America's "systemic racism" holds Black people back.
"Propaganda," Sowell calls it. "If you go back into the '20s, you find that married-couple families were much more prevalent among Blacks. As late as 1930, Blacks have lower unemployment rates than whites."
But if systemic racism was the cause of inequality, he says, "All these things that we complain about, and attribute to the era of slavery, should've been worse in the past than in the present!"
Sowell says the bigger cause of Black Americans' problems today is government welfare initiated in the 1960s. The programs encouraged people to become dependent on handouts.
"You began to have the mindset that goes with the welfare state," Sowell says. "No stigma any longer attached to being on relief."
Anyone disadvantaged by racial policies of this government must return to lessons taught by others that were racially discriminated against by our government in the past.
When an individual believes that either the federal government or a state government has violated that individual’s guaranteed equal rights, that individual is able to bring a lawsuit against that governmental body for relief.
Based on the type of discrimination alleged, the individual will first need to prove that the governing body actually discriminated against the individual. The individual will need to prove that the governing body’s action resulted in an actual harm to the individual. After proving this, the court will typically scrutinize the governmental action in one of several three ways to determine whether the governmental body’s action is permissible.
Boycotts must be organized of those businesses wishing to subject customers to discrimination.
I vote 1965 by a guy named LBJ who is reported to have said, "When I sign this bill we will have the n-word voting democrat for the next 200 years!"
“Affordable housing” usually turns very quickly into rundown, rat and roach infested, crime ridden, slums.
And I will mourn on the day that Mr. Sowell leaves us!
Regards,
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