Economic Facts and Fallacies: Second Edition

Excellent, readable, real world analysis of unintended consequences of economic policies.

Thomas Sowell has a straight foreward style that gets to the core issues that are at play beyond the typical superficial analyses of complex economic problems of our day. I strongly recommend this book. Thomas Sowell is intellectually honest and wise.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Monty Python's 'Theory on Brontosauruses' meets Intelligent Design

I would strongly recommend Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell to any person interested in sociology and logical fallacy. It is deliciously ironic that Sowell sets out to debunk economic fallacies primarily by employing a diverse lot of logical fallacies. The comparison to Monty Pythons Theory on Brontosauruses is made due to Sowell's lack of ability to 'or perhaps simply choosing not to' provide any alternative theories of his own in place of his so called 'fallacies', at least none more compelling then dinosaurs being pointy at one end, rather thicker in the middle and then narrowing down again at the other. The Theory of Intelligent Design is brought about because Mr. Sowell seems to believe, like the ID crowd, that simply by finding fault in one explanation 'the fossil record has gaps, the median age of black Americans is lower then whites' the remaining argument is proven false. Two of my favorite examples from the book are his discussion of race riots following the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and his explanation of why employers didn't hire females into the work force due to their potential to disrupt productivity. Surely an author as knowledgeable as Mr. Sowell would be aware that there was a tremendous amount of discord and anger prior to 1965 and that it was because of this that the Voting Rights Act 'over much strenuous objection' was brought about. It is an egregious misuse of logical cause and effect to suggest that passage of the Act caused the riots or even to suggest that passage of the Act prior to the riots extinguished the claim that poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination where among the root causes. Turning to Mr. Sowell's treatment of Male-Female Facts and his suggestion that one of the current causes of female underpayment is because in years past 'the distraction of a female worker in their 'the mens' midst could adversely affect productivity, even if the woman herself was just as productive as the men' is simply pandering. Yes, in a kindergarten class this might be a plausble argument, 'cooties are real' but give American Industry some credit. Even 50 or 80 years ago industry and agriculture were run by adults. There didn't seem to be any problem having women building planes and tanks during the 40's. In short, I find this book to be an excellent example of Clarance Thomasism 'I got mine so you should be able to get yours too' and if read as such will prove enlightening. I strongly recommend a companion book, Nonsense: A Handbook of Logical Fallacies by Robert Gula as a companion read. The two fit together like hand in glove.

2 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

Twist and shout

He has a lot of facts and very well notes his facts making this a great way to learn about economic issues. However he twists these facts to suit his arguments. Such as with the elderly he says the media portrays them as eating dog food but they have the most wealth. Wealth does not mean income and therefore does not mean they have money to payfor things or that less than two percent of seniorsbhave health care, does that count medicare which is provided by the government and just because they have health insurance it does not mean that it is affordable.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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