Thomas Sowell ( 10 of 95 )
Join in the new game that's sweeping the country. It's called "Bureaucracy" Everybody stands in a circle. The first person read more
Join in the new game that's sweeping the country. It's called "Bureaucracy" Everybody stands in a circle. The first person to do anything loses.
Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.
Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.
Mystical references to "society" and its programs to "help" may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really read more
Mystical references to "society" and its programs to "help" may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that read more
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.
The most basic inherent constraint is that neither time nor wisdom are free goods available in unlimited quantity. This means read more
The most basic inherent constraint is that neither time nor wisdom are free goods available in unlimited quantity. This means that in social processes, as in economic processes, it is not only impossible to attain perfection but irrational to seek perfection- or even to seek the "best possible" result in each separate instance.
Policies are judged by their consequences, but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.
Policies are judged by their consequences, but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.
The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that read more
The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family- which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars and depressions- began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to "help."
Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast read more
Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.
It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and read more
It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and waterways being notable examples. This goes to the heart of why property rights are socially important in the first place. Property rights mean self-interested monitors. No owned creatures are in danger of extinction. No owned forests are in danger of being leveled. No one kills the goose that lays the golden egg when it is his goose.
