Thomas Sowell

From one of Americas most distinguished economists comes this work that exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues--and does so in a lively, easy-to-understand style.

Economic Facts and Fallacies

Brilliant. Thomas Sowell is too underestimated for the world’s good.  

Ines Camacho Rodrigues Dias Ferreira

Emmett

A straightforward and dispassionate look at what numbers can tell us, their potentials and limitations, and how the numbers are often read wrong. For those hesitant to rub shoulders with census takers and statisticians like this reader, Thomas Sowell goes before us. The overall conclusion is that cited data is not straightforward but ultimately knowable with careful sifting. 

By turning away from an obsessive focus on contemporary and internal politics, Sowell indirectly shows how myopic this preoccupation can be. (Another way of looking at it: a non-American can appreciate and apply his socioeconomic insights, e.g. claims on the benefits of minimum wage, how 'inequality' is used as the impetus for aggressive revisions of socioeconomic policy.) His examples come from beyond America's borders as he examines the factors of economic growth, social development and personal choice in countries including Japan, Malaysia and South Africa; and, in a short palate-cleansing chapter on the relationship between racism and slavery, across time and space as he traces civilisational conflict within and across continents.

Nikolay Bachiyski

To set the stage, I more often identify with centrist ideas (hard to explain) and the book was a conscious attempt to learn more about the “right” – Thomas Sowell is openly conservative, so it fit the bill.

I must confess, I enjoyed the book more than I expected. It both brought me closer to some conservative economic ideas, made me think deeper about some statistics and public policies, and confirmed my belief that, as a society, we are far away from being able to have an unbiased discourse about political and economic issues.

Economic Facts and Fallacies goes into more detail about, as the title suggests, facts and fallacies (mostly fallacies) in six major areas of our lives – urban life and planning, gender issues, academia, income, racial issues, and the third world. Not an exhaustive list of areas, but let's say wide enough.

The invariants in all sections are that the author:
- finds a way to show us that the free market is good;
- finds a way to show us that government intervention is bad;
- provides clever, unpopular, and in-depth ways to reason about common facts and statistics.

It is obvious from an airplane that the author is biased. The reading experience improved once I got better at filtering out the bullshit, like him claiming that because in 2001 3/4 of poor people had air conditioning versus only 1/3 of all Americans in 1971, this means that the 2001 poor are now closer to a middle-class lifestyle. WTF! Mind-boggling illogical episodes like this aside, Economic Facts and Fallacies left me with few take-aways:

- obvious, but worth re-iterating – facts and statistics can be interpreted in many ways for various purposes, never forget that. This book both said it explicitly and abused some statistics to help the author's agenda :)
- comparing averages when groups differ in more than one feature can be dangerous. Average yearly household income is a great example. If group A has lot more part-time workers than group B, their average yearly income will naturally be lower and if we want a more honest comparison, we should try hourly income, instead. Same if group A has often a different number of household members.
- incentives, even unspoken ones, drive the behavior of large groups of people (society, organizations). When decision-makers don't have a stake, they make one type of decisions, when they're too invested, they go to the opposite extreme. As you might imagine, Thomas Sowell spoke mostly about the first kind :)
- finding strong alternative voices in today's left-ish media landscape is very important for keeping a healthy information diet. Economic Facts and Fallacies offered me a valuable perspective, even if I didn't agree with many of the author's beliefs or conclusions.

📖❓Is the book for you:

✅ For you: if you have a reasonable of idea of economics, lean center/left, and want to be challenged.

🔸Maybe for you: already leaning right and want more talking points :)

🔴 Not for you: novice in economics and hope to learn more about how the world works.

D VA

Erhan Bilici

Danté

Mundy Otto Reimer

Antoine Pirard

In Economic Facts and Fallacies, Thomas Sowell exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues in a lively manner that does not require any prior knowledge of economics. These fallacies include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media and by politicians, such as fallacies about urban problems, income differences, male-female economic differences, as well as economic fallacies about academia, about race, and about Third World countries. Sowell shows that fallacies are not simply crazy ideas but in fact have a certain plausibility that gives them their staying power--and makes careful examination of their flaws both necessary and important.

Economic Facts and Fallacies

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