Thomas Sowell interview • Hacker News Board

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#261

Post by BurningFrog » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

john-shaffer wrote: post #184

BurningFrog wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Sowell is a very important thinker in his own right. At the same time, there is nothing conservatives love more than a black intellectual who strongly agrees with them. Perhaps for both good and bad reasons. That adoration does color the perception of people like Sowell.

Your perception of Sowell is colored because he's a black intellectual? That sounds pretty damn racist. How about not judging black people when they don't fit in the box you want to put them in?

Can't tell if this is a joke or not.

For the record, I'm not having that perception. But many will judge people by who agrees with them.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#262

Post by monocasa » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #247

markharper wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He fundamentally does not understand how markets work. I am a software engineer. I can assure you that the Harvard and Yale educated professor that's written textbooks on the subject knows how markets work. He might be heterodox in his adherence to marxist economics, but he fully understands the orthodox position, almost certainly in more detail than you or I ever will.

I think your comment is the classic appeal to authority. "He's a professor at xyz, therefore, he's right".

It's not just that he's a professor, it's that he has a PhD in economics. The field of economics itself has given the stamp of approval that he both understands the field and has contributed in novel ways to it.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#263

Post by UncleOxidant » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #221

rayiner wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you ask a liberal or a saltwater economist, “What would somebody on the other side of this divide say here? What would their version of it be?” A liberal can do that. A liberal can talk coherently about what the conservative view is because people like me actually do listen. We don’t think it’s right, but we pay enough attention to see what the other person is trying to get at. The reverse is not true. You try t…

> many conservatives were once liberals, while the reverse is typically not true. Is there any data to support that claim? It’s the opposite of my own personal anecdata.

Opposite of my personal anecdata as well. In the 90s I was a National Review-reading, Limbaugh-listening conservative. It started changing in the early 2000s when GWB invaded Iraq. Voted for Obama in '08 (a centrist) and Bernie in '16 (a Leftist). Now I identify as a mostly Left of center progressive.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#264

Post by vadansky » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

deiznof wrote: post #260

vadansky wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He brought up anti discrimination legislation causing defaulting and bankruptcy, which the 2008 crash literally caused. No he didn't, what are you talking about? Just because he mentioned foreclosures means he meant the CRA caused the 2008 housing crisis? No one was talking about it, you just brought it up out of no where. His statement had NOTHING to do with the housing crisis, the only link between them seems to b…

OH MY GOD... The OP brought up that Sowell said that anti discrimination legislation increased defaulting and bankruptcy. Thomas Sowell literally wrote an entire article blaming CRA about 10 years ago. I brought up how Sowell is wrong because studies show that he is wrong.

So even though you quoted one argument, you posted a document to prove a whole other argument wrong, never bothering to bring up that the other argument you just proved wrong. I still don't know what other argument you proved wrong, did Sowell go on record saying the CRA caused the 2008 housing crisis?

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#265

Post by chrisjarvis » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

sumtechguy wrote: post #78

brickmort wrote: post #49

I've read six Thomas Sowell books in the past few years. His book Basic Economics is a classic, but my favorite of his is Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One . It covers the things that the former does but, as the title suggests, applies it to a real-life scenario. He then walks through the scenario as it plays out to demonstrate his point to the reader. For example, when a city artificially lowers the rent,…

I like the book 'Economics in one lesson' by Henry Hazlitt which does something similar.

IMO this book should be required required reading for college students.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#266

Post by rayiner » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #221

rayiner wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you ask a liberal or a saltwater economist, “What would somebody on the other side of this divide say here? What would their version of it be?” A liberal can do that. A liberal can talk coherently about what the conservative view is because people like me actually do listen. We don’t think it’s right, but we pay enough attention to see what the other person is trying to get at. The reverse is not true. You try t…

> many conservatives were once liberals, while the reverse is typically not true. Is there any data to support that claim? It’s the opposite of my own personal anecdata.

It’s a byproduct of the fact that each cohort becomes more conservative with age: https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-millenn...

> On average, Americans identify as more politically liberal at age 18 and become increasingly conservative between their 20s and 60s.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#267

Post by YesThatTom2 » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

He repeats conservative propaganda so that conservatives can quote him and pretend they aren’t racist because they have one black friend.

For example there was a recent twitter flap because he repeated an old invalidated conservative talking point about reproductive rights and tons of white clconservatives jumped on board saying “see! The black community agrees!”

This is all a strategy to manufacture consent.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#268

Post by missedthecue » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

monocasa wrote: post #262

missedthecue wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your comment is the classic appeal to authority. "He's a professor at xyz, therefore, he's right".

It's not just that he's a professor, it's that he has a PhD in economics. The field of economics itself has given the stamp of approval that he both understands the field and has contributed in novel ways to it.

Kurt Wise has a PhD in paleontology from Harvard and is a young earth creationist. Again, just because someone has something on their resume does not therefore mean that they are correct.

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#269

Post by AlphaOne1 » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

I agree that his Basic Economic book is very easy to read. It completely opened my eyes as to how to think about economics in high school when I first read. I recently watched an interview about his latest book, which he just published at 90 years of age, on charter schools. It was fascinating when he goes through the data showing that when charter schools were used in New York, the race gap disappeared. All the special interests involved in schooling as well as lack of accountability is quite depressing. Here is a transcript: https://www.hoover.org/research/economist-looks-90-tom-sowel...

Re: Thomas Sowell interview

#270

Post by ardy42 » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

tengbretson wrote: post #166

ardy42 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here is an academic 'cancellations' tracking document by the National Association of Scholars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Schola... > The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American non-profit politically conservative advocacy group, with a particular interest in education.[2][3] It opposes a perceived political correctness on college campuses and supports a return to mid-20th-c…

What exactly is your point by posting that? Is it that these people should not have advocates?

> What exactly is your point by posting that? Is it that these people should not have advocates?

That I wanted to know the orientation of the group, and thought I might save others the trouble of looking it up? I didn't know people would be so sensitive about seeing the first two sentences of a Wikipedia article.