|
|
|
This comprehensive compendium of articles, book excerpts and biographical sketches, compiled and edited by the author himself, will give readers who are unfamiliar with the writingsbof this respected conservative economist insight into the wide-ranging fields in which he has written over the years. Sowell has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA and other academic institutions, and his Basic Economics has been translated into six languages. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and writes for Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, plus a syndicated column appearing in newspapers across the country. Sowell's purpose in publishing this book is to reduce A favorite piece is entitled "Spoiled Brat Politics" in which Sowell tells us that "The essence of bigotry is denying others the same rights you claim for yourself." For example, he uses the Americans with Disabilities Act that created a right to sue private institutions to force them to spend their money to solve problems of those with special desires, whether frivolous or serious. Sowell's primary field of expertise, economics, touches on many of the hot-button issues of the day. He tells us that the factor many never take into account when using economic models to promote liberal ideologies is that these models never progress beyond "stage one." The very problem these ideologies seek to "fix" is most often not studied beyond the initial situation itself, and the later consequences are frequently more disastrous than the problem to be fixed. The chapter "Unfunded Mandates" seems to sum up the irrational ideals of liberal economics. When the federal government legislates an unfunded mandate that the states are expected to pay for, it makes the case that something is wrong if you are unwilling to put the taxpayers' "money where your mouth is." Many things are beneficial that vastly exceed what any nation can afford, and trade-offs must be made. Unfunded mandates are just an underhanded way of making costly decisions without weighing the costs against the benefits. This book packs a lot of thought-provoking subjects written over a half century into small,easy-to-digest bites that will intrigue the reader to probe further into the mind of this thoroughly sound and much admired economist. (Basic Books, 2011, 449 pp., $30) |
any misunderstandings on the positions he has taken on controversial issues and to introduce a wider audience to a sampling of the many and varied topics he has covered in his lifetime. His writings encompass everything from baseball to politics; autism to history; race and social issues to education and legal issues; growing old and gun control.
