An Interview With Thomas Sowell

12 Replies to “An Interview With Thomas Sowell”

1. From the interview:
   
   For example, at one time being a Roman citizen was a source of great pride. Towards the end of the Empire, all sorts of people had been made Roman citizens who had no commitment to Rome and it was just a convenience for them to be able to get the benefits of being a Roman citizen without themselves reciprocating it in any way
   This vaguely reminds me of something, but I just Khadr put my finger on it…

2. Interesting, his transition from Marxist to conservative when he realised the ‘government’ committee was ‘not interested in facts’.

3. are you suggesting Sowell was a Marxist?
   pshaw…

4. Funny how quickly the idea of entitlements and a sense of ‘the world owes me a living’ will destroy a country.
   Any country.

5. Begley…did you even read the interview?

6. Having read several of Sowell’s books it is amazing how many great thinkers were Marxist in their early days and followed the old mantra of thinking with their head rather than their heart as they grew older. Of course many, as we see in leftist posters on various sites, don’t think at all and never change their views despite all the evidence around us as Thomas Sowell aptly points out.

7. His views on marriage are interesting.
   He is one of the best thinkers around.
   A people that has no vested interest in the growth of a nation other than receiving entitlements are doomed to see their country fail. Generally this type of citizen is so blinded by their sense of entitlement that they fail to see where this path leads.

8. “I realized then you can’t depend on the government because the government is not some brooding presence in the sky. The government is an organization with its own interest which it will serve over and above whatever interest it is supposedly being set up to serve.”
   Thank you,Mr.Sowell. That last sentence should be carved in bronze and attached to every public building in the Nation.

9. I am part way through Sowell’s “Intellectuals And Society”. He thoroughly explains why the world seems to be run by crazy people – it is. Intellects and media are the main culprits.
   Sowell/Palin 2012

10. One of the things that many have taken for granted for a long time, which they were indoctrinated with at school is that Maynard Keynes solution to depression works….it obviously doesn’t. That FDR’s policies cured the Depression when the reverse is true.
    Maynard Keynes was Gay and that made him largely indifferent to the future…..people usually instinctively consider their offspring’s future.
    The US recovery from the Depression rested on employment in the military and the war industries…..which gave the US record deficits.
    What it did was not so much emplyment and economic activity but rather widespread emotional involvement…a state of mind….IMO

11. Interesting idea on the peoples cube website.
    This stems from Bill Gates’ idea for more taxation on the rich, which went down to defeat 65-35% in Washington State.
    Lefties like to talk about progressive taxation.
    TPC posits a new tax, the Progressive Tax, wherein all those who call themselves progressive (synomym for marxist) should be taxed 100% of their income.
    Sounds like a good counter-argument whenever somebody tells you that taxation is the price we pay for a civilized society.
    Anyway, here’s the link
    http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=6376

12. Thomas Sowell states himself he was a Marxist and changed to conservatism due to ‘personal experience’. When 40% pay NO income tax whatsoever in the US it is not in their interests to support tax cuts. In their view, that only decreases what they have coming to them by those who actually work in the country to produce.
    Which, in my view, is why VATs are better than Income Tax any day. Better THAN not IN ADDITION TO. As Dr. Sowell points out the government is interested in government and will serve its own intersts over and above any interest it has been created to serve.