The Great Thomas Sowell
He’s an economist, a historian, a philosopher, and one of the greatest social theorists America has ever produced. His name is Thomas Sowell, and he might be the most important scholar you’ve never heard of. Jason Riley, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, tells his inspiring story.
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Script:
He’s an economist, a historian, a philosopher, and one of the greatest social theorists America has ever produced. In a career spanning six decades, he’s published more than 40 books and written thousands of newspaper columns on topics ranging from economic history and political philosophy to social inequality, education, and race.
His name is Thomas Sowell, and he might be the most important scholar you’ve never heard of.
Born during the Great Depression in rural North Carolina in a home with no electricity, Sowell was orphaned when he was just a toddler. Taken in by a distant relative, he grew up in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. An unruly teen, he was obviously intelligent and obviously full of anger. The latter initially overwhelmed the former.
He dropped out of high school, left home at age 17, and lived in a shelter for homeless boys where he kept a knife under his pillow at night for protection.
The Marines saved him. It wasn’t by choice. He was drafted during the Korean War. In the military, he gained habits of personal discipline and developed self-control. He taught pistol shooting and learned photography, which became a lifelong hobby.
After leaving the Marines, he went to college on the G.I. Bill—eventually graduating from Harvard and doing additional studies at the University of Chicago under the guidance of the legendary economist Milton Friedman.
He began his intellectual journey as a committed Marxist, but soon reached a life-altering conclusion: Marxism didn’t work. After studying the effects of various government regulations, including minimum wage laws, he concluded that free markets were a far better alternative, particularly for disadvantaged groups.
“Many attempts at redistributing wealth,” he later wrote, “have ended up redistributing poverty.”
In the 1960s and 70s, Sowell taught economics at Amherst, Cornell, and UCLA, distinguishing himself as one of the country’s top experts on economic history. Since 1980, he’s been a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
It was around this time that Sowell turned his attention to social theory and political philosophy, writing books like Knowledge and Decisions and A Conflict of Visions, which many consider to be his best professional work. He also began writing more about racial controversies, which is why he’s not as well-known and appreciated today as he should be.
Sowell has been a vocal critic of civil rights leaders and of liberalism’s misguided efforts to help the black poor. His targets over the decades have included welfare programs, racial preferences, multiculturalism, and opposition to school choice. Sowell brings the same empirical approach to writing about social policy that he brings to writing about economics.
His focus is on the facts and the evidence.
The actual results of a policy matter much more to him than the good intentions of politicians and policy makers. This is perfectly captured in his concept of “Stage One” thinking. Liberal politicians propose expensive policy solutions and never ask the only questions that really matter: what are the long-term costs and consequences? In other words, what happens beyond stage one? By the time these costs and consequences fully manifest themselves—and they’re usually disastrous—the politicians who originally set the policies in motion are long gone. They’ve derived all the political benefit and paid none of the cost.
In books like Race and Culture, Sowell has demonstrated racial preferences are counterproductive; that political power is not necessary to advance economically; and that racial discrimination cannot be used as a blanket explanation for disparities in employment, education, and income.
For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/the-great-thomas-sowell
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Thomas Sowell offers the facts so desperately needed in this dumb down Times we live in.
Jason, thank you very much, man. Your contribution to highlighting spreading Thomas Sowell's opus is a great scholarship and service to humanity in its own right. Thank you, again!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY To this great American. Thomas Sowell will be a young 93 years old on June 30
FromtheBottomFS got me here
Thanks for another fantastic video
A real black man.
Thomas Sowell should be duly credited for his academic achievements. Nevertheless, Thomas Sowell is basically just a BOOTLICK pandering for white approval! That has been his career. He desperately hides from the harsh reality of continuing actual LEGITIMATE race grievances! That is his disgrace.
I know the nobel prizes are a joke, but their seriously needs to be a way we can at least send him our appreciation.
Democrats and republicans dont help nothing, like sowell they all just talk. #sovereignAmericanindian #churchwarcrimes #statewarcrimes
Exactly what america produce. He doesn't know sovereign tribal law, he is a theorist and cant think for himself. His educated by common law not sovereign law, custom law or international law.
The second coming of Ayn Rand.
As a brown legal immigrant, I tip my hat to both of them.
Collectivism is a virus that destroys the host.
To all Americans, and citizens of the world that consider themselves Americans because they support life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
God Bless Sowell
The word Uncle Tom was literally made for this asshole
This is an ad was produced by Rick Berman, aka, “Dr. Evil”. Look it up.
What a concise, clear and strong overview of the legacy of Sowell. Thanks Jason and editors for making this very shareable video!!
Interesting video and Thomas Sowell is absolutely amazing. I as a Black Australian man of East African Somali descent love the Black American community. I myself have no enslaved and segregated ancestors because they were East African Somali people who were never captured or kidnapped or sold into slavery because they came from a strong empire. I am the proud son of two East African Somali immigrant parents both my father and my mother plus my paternal uncle which they all successfully immigrated to Australia in the mid 1990s escaping the Somali Civil War which devastated the country. My family and I still live there today. I love Australia because it is so peaceful and relaxing here plus I enjoy my life here in this incredible country. If I was a descendant of an amazingly tough enslaved and segregated ancestors who went through so much suffering I would always honour them plus remember them. I would never disgrace or forget what they had to experience the painful torment of racism. My heart goes out to all the oppressed Black people in the past that had go through the African Tribal Warfare, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Chattel Slavery, the Colonial Wars, the Domestic Slave Trade, the American Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan Racial Terror Lynchings, the Race Riots, Convict Leasing, Jim Crow Segregation, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Redlinings, the Inner City Gang Violence, the War On Drugs, Police Brutality, the Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System, and Private Prison Abuse. In the United States of America today there is still Inner City Gang Violence, Police Brutality, Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System, and Private Prison Abuse so depressing. America needs a huge criminal justice reform, economic reform, gun control reform, immigration reform, police reform, political reform, and prison reform. I send my love plus support all the way from Lakemba, New South Wales, Australia. To all my fellow human brothers and sisters around the world, always remember be genuine & take care of one another.
Thomas sowell should be taught in all schools in North America.
Dr. Sowell has NOT been honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom yet? Say it's not so!
I wish that Thomas Sowell's knowledge could be known to all in America. He along with Jordan Peterson have kept me and proply many others from going down a path towards being a wild left winger.
If everyone in the government was as sensible as Thomas Sowell, we would have a utopian society. Or very close to one.
Sowell is a national treasure.
Sowell is top notch. Riley is no slouch either.