Thomas Sowell Quote
A mere enumeration of government activity is evidence -- often the sole evidence offered -- of inadequate nongovernment institutions, whose inability to cope with problems obviously required state intervention. Government is depicted as acting not in response to its own political incentives and constraints but because it is compelled to do so by concern for the public interest: it cannot keep its hands off when so much is at stake, when emergency compels it to supersede other decision making processes. Such a tableau simple ignores the possibility that there are political incentives for the production and distribution of emergencies to justify expansions of power as well as to use episodic emergencies as a reason for creating enduring government institutions.
A mere enumeration of government activity is evidence -- often the sole evidence offered -- of inadequate nongovernment institutions, whose inability to cope with problems obviously required state intervention. Government is depicted as acting not in response to its own political incentives and constraints but because it is compelled to do so by concern for the public interest: it cannot keep its hands off when so much is at stake, when emergency compels it to supersede other decision making processes. Such a tableau simple ignores the possibility that there are political incentives for the production and distribution of emergencies to justify expansions of power as well as to use episodic emergencies as a reason for creating enduring government institutions.
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About Thomas Sowell
Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina, and grew up in Harlem, New York City. Due to poverty and difficulties at home, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and worked various odd jobs, eventually serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Afterward, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1958. He earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia University the next year, and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. In his academic career, he held professorships at Cornell University, Brandeis University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked at think tanks, including the Urban Institute. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy.
Sowell was an important figure to the conservative movement during the Reagan era, influencing fellow economist Walter E. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, but declined both times.
Sowell is the author of more than 45 books (including revised and new editions) on a variety of subjects, including politics, economics, education, and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers. His views are described as conservative, especially on social issues; libertarian, especially on economics; or libertarian-conservative. He has said he may be best labeled as a libertarian, though he disagrees with the "libertarian movement" on some issues, such as national defense.