Sowell: The 'Fairness' Fraud

Creators Syndicate ^ | February 25, 2014 | Thomas Sowell

[jazusamo]

It seems as if, everywhere you turn these days, there are studies claiming to show that America has lost its upward mobility for people born in the lower socioeconomic levels. But there is a sharp difference between upward "mobility," defined as an opportunity to rise, and mobility defined as actually having risen.

That distinction is seldom even mentioned in most of the studies. It is as if everybody is chomping at the bit to get ahead, and the ones that don't rise have been stopped by "barriers" created by "society."

When statistics show that sons of high school dropouts don't become doctors or scientists nearly as often as the sons of Ph.D.s, that is taken as a sign that American society is not "fair."

If equal probabilities of achieving some goal is your definition of fairness, then we should all get together — people of every race, color, creed, national origin, political ideology and sexual preference — and stipulate that life has never been fair, anywhere or any time in all the millennia of recorded history.

Then we can begin at last to talk sense.

I know that I never had an equal chance to become a great ballet dancer like Rudolph Nureyev. The thought of becoming a ballet dancer never once crossed my mind in all the years when I was growing up in Harlem. I suspect that the same thought never crossed the minds of most of the guys growing up on New York's lower east side.

Does that mean that there were unfair barriers keeping us from following in the footsteps of Rudolph Nureyev?

[jazusamo]

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[Red Badger]

I’m ‘upwardly mobile’ but someone keeps lengthening the ladder....................

[MNGal]

At least Sowell took a break from bashing Ted Cruz to write this article.

[Beagle8U]

How far someone advances, in terms of achievement, should be measured from their starting point.

[jazusamo]

They only do that so you can reach your maximum potential. :-)

[SoConPubbie]

Lost a lot of respect for Thomas Sowell after he took up the GOP-E Surrender Monkey banner and attacked Ted Cruz.

[jazusamo]

I certainly believe he is wrong about Ted Cruz.

[oldbrowser]

Those who preach this counterproductive message will probably never think that the envy, resentment and hopelessness they preach, and the welfare state they promote, are among the factors keeping people down.

It almost seems like they are doing this purposely.

[Red Badger]

True, but they keep moving the goalposts.....................

[sauropod]

.

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

[GeronL]

Has he finally decided to start bashing leftism again?

[Cyber Liberty]

Yes, it’s a nice breather from the backstabbing last week.

[Sivad]

“At least Sowell took a break from bashing Ted Cruz to write this article.”

Scrutiny from your own side is not necessarily such a bad thing.
Had the Democrats and, particularly, left leaning independents
scrutinized the current POTUS, the nation might now have better
leadership.

[MNGal]

“Scrutiny from your own side is not necessarily such a bad thing.”

I agree, but I thought that the 3 or 4 anti-Cruz articles in 1 week was a little much.

[GeronL]

The do-nothing, Dem-loving GOPe or someone who actually stands and fights and inspires?

tough choice.

[SoConPubbie]

Scrutiny from your own side is not necessarily such a bad thing. Had the Democrats and, particularly, left leaning independents scrutinized the current POTUS, the nation might now have better leadership.

Care to share how you think the drivel that Dr. Sowell published about Ted Cruz will EVER lead to better leadership from the GOP-E

[Servant of the Cross]

The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theories on an order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the type of grinding poverty that you're talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they've had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it is in exactly the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that ... the record of history is absolutely crystal clear …. that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people, that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system …. Milton Friedman

[unlearner]

Sowell made a mistake with Cruz, but Sowell has been fighting liberalism effectively for longer than Cruz has been in politics. We cannot afford to throw him under the bus for one mistake.