341–350 of 457 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Must be hard. Hating it when the ideas of a black author are supported, admired, and shape the political leanings of a white audience.
It's not a "white audience", it's a white audience whose identity hinges on white supremacy.
Nonconformist is exactly how I wouldn't describe Thomas Sowell, whose economics and ideology is that of conformist conservative cliche. He's the kind of charlatan who'll tell you that property law that benefits rich folks is magical and natural but other law like taxation law is artificial regulation. I highly recommend Dean Baker's "The Conservative Nanny State" for a good debunking of this nonsense.
What tends to make for better threads is focusing on the specifics of a specific story, and steering clear of the pull of the nearest generic black holes.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Thomas Sowell has had a huge impact on me and my views on economics. I'm from a poor working-class background and am often irritated by the needless language barriers of academics. > “Too many academics write as if plain English is beneath their dignity,” Sowell once said, “and some seem to regard logic as an unconstitutional infringement of their freedom of speech.” Sowell is unique in this respect. He's book, "Basi…
Overall, I like his writing, but his style can also come across as dismissive; as though he is obviously right, before he has really addressed all lines of criticism. When used to explain something, this style is great, because he gets his point across efficiently and provides enough backing so that you can remember it. And if you read enough of his writing, he brings out the nuance in other books and the intellectua…
I don't know about him as a teacher, but as a thought leader, he is successful because he says the things that the right people want to hear.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any other book recommendations for a counter to Sowell's Basic Economics? It would be a good exercise to read his book and an alternative.
I'd second the other response's recommendation of Richard Wolff's work. He's a marxist and democratic socialist, so read his work understanding his perspective in relation to your own, whatever that might be. That being said, I found his book Competing Economic Theories on neoliberalism, keynsianism, and marxism to be very fair to all sides.
[flagged]
> + socialism == great loss of liberty Is it a firm rule that this always has to be the case? Do people in, say, Finland have less liberty than people in the US?
It also depends on how large of a system you are talking about, and whether even well-intentioned people can make reasonable decisions. In a village, it might be pretty clear that you have enough farmers but need a fisherman; or that there are enough painters and you need a musician. But in a metropolis, country, or global market it might not be so clear and you need some feedback signals. Price set by the seller is a very effective feedback mechanism because it's so simple, but you could imagine other forms of feedback as well (many of which might be an affront to freedom).
Then there's also the political danger of socialism, which is that you have to give someone (or a group) an awful lot of power to implement it. In theory, democracy will guide politics in a reasonable direction, but in practice democracy is a very imperfect guide. "Implementation details" of socialism are often an affront to freedom.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a standard rhetorical technique you'll see in much right-wing writing. Statements are made as if they're simply correct by definition, and there is no space for argument or dissent. Is he genuinely objective and data-driven? How many of his studies have been replicated? How many competing studies - which he fails to mention - disagree with his conclusions? It's easy to be right when you simply assert your idea…
It's also a common technique among teachers, because teachers are not trying to persuade skeptics. You are presenting it as some kind of manipulation, but it's really just a different audience. And it's a lot easier to read the straightforward style, and learn a lot of stuff quickly. His conclusions are not really the most important thing about his writing, anyway. He brings forward a lot of good approaches that are…
I’ve been reading a lot of his books lately, I cannot recommend enough. He does take a conservative approach to a lot of topics but the way he breaks things down helps you understand why. His book Basic Economics taught me more than any economics classes did in school.
> He does take a conservative approach to a lot of topics... Sowell's book A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles [1] is, ironically, a very good starting point in understanding what makes Sowell "conservative" (the Constrained Vision) vs "progressive" (the Unconstrained Vision). I think this is the work that impressed Steven Pinker. The categories get really messy, for example when he desc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overall, I like his writing, but his style can also come across as dismissive; as though he is obviously right, before he has really addressed all lines of criticism. When used to explain something, this style is great, because he gets his point across efficiently and provides enough backing so that you can remember it. And if you read enough of his writing, he brings out the nuance in other books and the intellectua…
This is why I've never been tempted by his books. His editorials come off not so much dismissive as smugly dismissive: he's not only obviously right, anyone who questions him is obviously stupid. I don't know about him as a teacher, but as a thought leader, he is successful because he says the things that the right people want to hear.
But if you aren’t even willing to listen to him, it’s moot anyway.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also a common technique among teachers, because teachers are not trying to persuade skeptics. You are presenting it as some kind of manipulation, but it's really just a different audience. And it's a lot easier to read the straightforward style, and learn a lot of stuff quickly. His conclusions are not really the most important thing about his writing, anyway. He brings forward a lot of good approaches that are…
Personally, I prefer my teachers with some humility and the ability to admit that they're sometimes wrong.
His writings do exactly what he states: Sowell insists that his work “stands or falls on its own merits or applicability” and is not “enhanced or reduced by [his] personal life.”. And they will continue to stand, objectively, for a long time to come. But his life and character are inspirational examples of self-determination and leadership that we need far more of. It is a shame he is not more often cited as an examp…
Thomas Sowell, ladies and gentlemen. (https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/12/1...)