The past year saw acceleration of the economic and political deterioration of our beleaguered country. In searching for solutions, I think there’s no better reference than the great American economist Thomas Sowell. Although Sowell is quintessentially American, his views and ideas translate remarkably well – one could say lamentably well – to other Western countries, especially English-speaking democracies like Canada. I say “lamentably” because this shows we are afflicted by the same problems that Sowell diagnoses. Luckily, the remedies he offers for his own country are also applicable here.
Thomas Sowell was born into a family of North Carolina sharecroppers in 1930; his father died before he was born, his mother not long after, and he was raised by a great aunt who moved them to Harlem, New York (before it became a crime-infested ghetto). Soon recognized as brilliant, the young Sowell’s education was encouraged and, despite some unusual turns, he earned multiple degrees, ultimately including a PhD from the University of Chicago, where he was mentored by the great free-market proponent Milton Friedman. Sowell was, however, an avowed Marxist, writing his master’s thesis in praise of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. His views changed completely while serving as an intern with the federal Department of Labor and Sowell transformed himself into a fervent advocate of free-market economics and an articulate critic of the damage caused by expansive government.
As Sowell went on to teach economics at leading American universities like Cornell and UCLA, his budding career coincided with the spread of “affirmative action” – the U.S. federal government’s initially well-intentioned policy to undo centuries of racial discrimination through reverse discrimination. This led many to assume that, despite his distinguished qualifications, Sowell was hired because he was black. Seeing other highly capable blacks facing the same demeaning dilemma, Sowell became a vocal critic of affirmative action. Two years ago, at age 92, Sowell published a widely acclaimed book on the subject, Social Justice Fallacies.
Who is Thomas Sowell?
Thomas Sowell is a renowned American economist, social theorist, professor, author and public intellectual. Born in 1930 to a sharecropping family in North Carolina and raised in Harlem, he overcame adversity to earn a PhD in economics under the mentorship of Milton Friedman. Initially a Marxist, Sowell became a passionate advocate for free-market economics and a critic of government overreach, affirmative action and socialism, establishing himself as one of the most influential conservative thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Though a deeply serious man, Sowell is the antithesis of stuffy, generating an unstoppable output of memorable insights. Below are some of my favourites, grouped by subject. All are drawn from this and this source which, in turn, drew from Sowell’s numerous books and vast stream of columns published over more than four decades. Note how easy it is to apply each of these observations to one or more issues afflicting Canada today.
Here is Sowell on Moral Values and Freedom:
- “Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.”
- “If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.”
- “Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”
- “What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying they don’t like something to saying government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.”
- “It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.”
While Sowell authored a best-selling and frequently re-issued textbook, Basic Economics, he is anything but a mere “numbers guy” or technocratic social scientist who views people as interchangeable drones whose behaviour can be modelled and predicted because it’s driven by a few quantifiable, quasi-mechanical principles. Instead, Sowell is a humanist who is as much philosopher, culture critic and political analyst as economist – in short, a public intellectual in the best sense. His mind has ranged across subjects from the experience of building a professional life as a conservative who happens to be black, to how public and private organizations make decisions, to public education.
Sowell’s writing smoulders with an underlying moral righteousness leavened by his good humour and human decency, the twinkle in his eye bouncing and sparkling even as he skewers leftist fallacies and the hypocrites who convey them. Sowell has a rare ability to boil down highly contentious topics or vast discussion areas into handy summaries or unforgettable aphorisms. For all his flair for the flamboyant phrase, Sowell is a deeply serious man who has grappled long over how to carve out and defend societal space for ordinary people to live in relative freedom as government grows bigger and more intrusive.
Freedom, indeed, has been Sowell’s great calling, something he sees as depending on maintaining an informed, engaged citizenry that is capable of self-government, while opposing statism, whether that be managerial technocracy or socialism.
What books did Thomas Sowell write?
Thomas Sowell has authored numerous influential books, including Basic Economics, a widely acclaimed introduction to economic principles; Social Justice Fallacies, which critiques modern identitarian/left-wing movements; and Charter Schools and Their Enemies, which examines the role of charter schools in education. Sowell’s writing spans economics, social theory and cultural criticism.
Here are a few of Sowell’s keen insights into Socialism and the Welfare State:
- “The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.”
- “Socialism has a record of failure so blatant that only an ‘intellectual’ could ignore or evade it.”
- “The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore, we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas don’t have to work to survive.”
- “Although the big word on the left is ‘compassion’, their big agenda is dependency.”
- “The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.”
- “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned, but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”
- “The real goal should be to reduce government spending, rather than increasing tax rates to cover ever-rising spending.”
Over the years Sowell accumulated a vast and fiercely loyal following. Scott Johnson of the U.S. Powerline blog is a frequent referent and here tries to explain Sowell’s mystique and unique connection with readers: “I think it is the profound feelings of gratitude that he elicits from readers of his books and columns — for their clarity, their expository gifts, their depth, their evident fairness, and their ability to get to the heart of the matter in prose that sparkles and bites. Especially in his columns, he is able to distill his conclusions in an incomparable aphoristic style.”
Author of innumerable columns and over 45 books, including the famous Basic Economics, Sowell is as much philosopher, culture critic and political analyst as economist; his writing is characterized by moral uprightness, good humour and human decency. Shown at left, Sowell’s column at The Record, March 3, 1981. Sowell frequently juxtaposes the common sense of regular people, derived from their direct experience, against the pomposity, arrogance and cluelessness of Western elites or the self-interest and incompetence of government bureaucracies. Some of his earliest targets after his evolution to conservatism were the era’s big technocratic-socialist economists, some of whom were treated virtually like rock stars, none more than the sneeringly statist John Kenneth Galbraith. In an early column written nearly 50 years ago, Sowell quipped that Galbraith’s haughty, imperious style was the intellectual equivalent of an “ungrammatical Archie Bunker”.
What are the best Thomas Sowell quotes?
Some of Thomas Sowell’s most memorable quotes include:
“Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.”
“Socialism has a record of failure so blatant that only an ‘intellectual’ could ignore or evade it.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
“It is self-destructive for any society to create a situation where a baby who is born today automatically has pre-existing grievances against another baby born at the same time, because of what their ancestors did centuries ago. It’s hard enough to solve our own problems, without having to solve our ancestors’ problems.”
Not surprisingly, Sowell has had much to say on this subject, and here are a few of my favourites concerning Bureaucracy:
- “You’ll never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
- “It’s hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
- “Open-ended demands are a mandate for ever-expanding bureaucracies with ever-expanding budgets and powers.”
- “People with time on their hands will invariably waste the time of people who have work to do.”
A lifelong individualist who likely would bristle at being lumped into any “group”, Sowell is among the highly accomplished and outspoken public intellectuals who have paid dearly for happening to be both conservative and black, triggering contempt and vilification from white “liberals” and angry blacks alike. Others include author Shelby Steele, economist Walter Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. All four worked tirelessly to resist the tides of affirmative action, group rights, identity politics, DEI and wokism, a usually thankless effort that now at last appears to be winning.
Here is Sowell on the topic of Placing Blame for Actions of Ancestors:
- “It is self-destructive for any society to create a situation where a baby who is born today automatically has pre-existing grievances against another baby born at the same time, because of what their ancestors did centuries ago. It’s hard enough to solve our own problems, without having to solve our ancestors’ problems.”
- “It’s a little much when people come to this country preaching hatred against others and demanding tolerance for themselves.”
Perhaps because of his own long intellectual journey, his youthful brushes with failure, or simply because his primary career was that of university professor, Sowell has taken a keen interest in education, devoting a recent book to the subject, Charter Schools and their Enemies, published on his 90th birthday in 2020.
Here are some of his views on Education:
- “Education is not merely neglected in schools today but is replaced by ideological indoctrination.”
- “Much of what is promoted as ‘critical thinking’ in our schools is in fact uncritical negativism towards the history and institutions of America and an uncritical praise of the cultures of foreign countries and domestic minorities.”
- “The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”
- “It doesn’t matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.”
Sowell the youthful Marxist matured into a great and eloquent patriot, and remained so unwaveringly through decades when this was reviled among America’s elites, media and educational institutions. Thankfully, at 94, he has lived long enough to see a patriotic revival in his country. If Sowell happens to be observing the goings-on in Canada, he may well witness the beginnings of a similar revival here in Canada. It is certainly overdue. My hope for our country in 2025 is a renaissance of political leadership and administrative leadership that better reflects the timeless principles espoused by this truly great man.
Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who was a director of five global corporations.
Source of main image: Free to Choose Network.
