I'm Just Sayin'

I've been reading the essays of Thomas Sowell. In his book, "Ever Wonder Why" (The Hoover Institution Press), which is a collection of Sowell's essays which have been previously published as newspaper columns, Thomas Sowell cleanly cuts through the rhetoric and mud and bias of what we consider to be conventional thought concerning the topics of our times. He uses common sense and raz0r sharp logic to disassemble our misconceptions and skewed opinions concerning legal issues, economics, social and racial problems and many other decisions we have made and the thought processes we have used that have led to the quagmire of our current state of affairs.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University.  While his expertise and insight are most evident in the field if economics, he doesn't limit himself to the specific topic of economics, but rather he demonstrates how most of the  problems and hurtles we face are related to our lack of the basic and fundamental aspects of economics and how economics work.

Economics...yulk... most of us are intimidated by just the word.  That is because we have been so misled, misinformed and lied to about the topic that we think economics is more complicated than it really is. The reason for all this confusion about economics is because we have been purposely misled in some instances, but the most accurate reason for the perceived complexity of economics is because we have listened to people who don't know what they are talking about. We are instructed by those who don't understand the dynamics of economics, but think they do understand. Most of the problems we suffer with today have been caused by fiddling with the law of supply and demand. Government intervention has caused overwhelmingly more problems than it has fixed as the intervention usually consists of the artificial pricing of our goods and services.

Sowell explains the difference between  price control and cost control...two very different items. As we seek to control prices of tangible goods and services..even the prices paid for labor, we ignore the cost of those goods and services. This is where huge confusion lies and is the root of many of not only our economic woes, but many of our social, educational, environmental and legal problems.

Sowell also gives keen insight into media inaccuracies and skewed reporting. We listen to people who don't have enough understanding about the issues and policies to accurately report on these subjects.  He has written several books and is syndicated in about 150 newspapers including the Wall Street Journal.

Thomas Sowell may well be the most honest, straight shooting and sane person on our planet.  Read his essays...you will not be disappointed..unless of course, truth and clarity don't interest you.