Thomas Sowell

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Thomas Sowell (born 1930) is a libertarian economist and advocate of supply-side economics based out of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is from the Chicago School of economics, in the same vein as Milton Friedman,[1] with the important distinction of Sowell being much crazier than Friedman ever was.

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[edit] Early life

Born into poverty during the Great Depression, Sowell became sympathetic to Marxism in his early years. However, after working for the government for some time, he came to see it as inefficient and began to turn towards the political right on economics, soon becoming an advocate for laissez-faire. And you know where this is going.

[edit] Get your drinks

Being a hardcore libertarian, Sowell has felt it necessary to compare Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, saying that the similarities were obvious when Barack Obama created a relief fund for the BP oil spill.[2] This was obviously socialism, since it involved the extraction of "vast sums of money from a private enterprise."[3] Another comparison he made between the two is that they were both supported by the sheeple (he calls them "useful idiots," much in the way Marxists use "false consciousness"), another sign the United States was slipping towards totalitarianism.

In another article Sowell outright labels Obama a fascist, citing Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism in the process. An example he gives of Obama's fascist economics is that under Obama a law passed that would "arbitrarily force insurance companies to cover the children of their customers until the children are 26 years old".[4][5]

Being a libertarian, Sowell supported the War in Iraq along with the notion of preemptive strikes,[6] and believes that Obama and Congress' supposed weakness in dealing with Iran could inspire Iran to develop nuclear weapons. But where he goes from typical right-wing pundit to batshit crazy is when he expresses the belief that Iran could nuke America, which would result in the US surrendering to Iran.[7] Yes, really, to Iran.

Sowell is also a global warming denier, believing it to be a manufactured controversy set up in part by academics who want research grants.[8] Some anti-environmentalist snarl words show up in his writings as well, such as "green crusaders." Another anti-environmentalist trope shows up in his writing when he expresses the nutty belief that Rachel Carson's criticisms of DDT led to bans on DDT that killed millions because it couldn't be used to fight malaria, even though there were exceptions to the "bans" explicitly for fighting malaria.[9] Despite this he claims that "there has not been a mass murderer executed in the past half-century who has been responsible for as many deaths of human beings as the sainted Rachel Carson."[10]

For years now Sowell has been a leading activist in "New Deal denialism," believing it worsened the economy and that the stock market crash didn't cause as high unemployment as government intervention in the economy.[11] Sowell is also critical of the Federal Reserve, minimum wage and the Great Society, accusing the latter of being a conspiracy to encourage welfare dependency amongst blacks.[12] He has danced around the idea of reinstituting the gold standard, not opposing it (so as to not upset libertarians) but not outright supporting it either (as to not be discredited by sane economists), though just the fact that he treats it like a credible idea makes it difficult to take him seriously as an economist.[13]

And as if all that isn't enough he's published some borderline insane articles about how "half-educated teachers" engage in "soul raping" children into becoming "true believers" (though he was invoking the specific words of Eric Hoffer with the last two quotes, though in a twisted way that served his hard-right beliefs).[14]

Sowell's sharp, no-punches-pulled rhetoric has gained him a cult-like following in right wing and libertarian circles. Expect to see YouTube videos of his interviews and commentary posted in comments sections.

[edit] In total fairness...

When not acting bonkers, Sowell has actually done some important work critiquing Marxist economics and trickle down economics, which he considers a poor version of supply-side. Some of the more legitimate critiques he made of Keynesianism (along with Friedman and Friedrich Hayek) helped Keynesian economists adjust their policies in a more efficient way. He also supports the decriminalization of drugs.

Sowell is also strongly critical of racialism and scientific racism. Of course, he goes on to say that it was only the left that was pushing the notion of genetic superiority (in the Progressive Era, specifically).[15] This is essentially ignoring most of American history, as well as blatant instances of right-wing uses of scientific racism, such as by the nativist movement, the Nazis, and the segregationists.

Sowell has also criticized the anti-vaccination movement.[16]

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Indeed, his official title at the Hoover Institution is the "Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy." See their Thomas Sowell bio.
  2. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/062110-537967-is-us-now-on-slippery-slope-to-tyranny-.htm
  3. Because a $50 billion bill for a company with an annual revenue of nearly $400 billion is "vast sums of money." (Ignoring externalities, eh?)
  4. Go ahead, reason with fractal wrongness
  5. It's not quite that easy Tom
  6. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2003/03/25/who_is_pro-war/page/full
  7. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/348312/two-world-wars-and-nuclear-iran
  8. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2007/03/15/global_warming_swindle/page/full
  9. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/228903/dangerous-minds/thomas-sowell
  10. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060701.asp
  11. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/226599/another-great-depression/thomas-sowell/page/0/1?splash=
  12. Yes, providing the same benefits that whites have had for 100+ years for the first time, then gutting them over the course of 30 can give that impression. (Blame the victim much?)
  13. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2010/09/28/politics_versus_gold/page/full
  14. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2003/06/19/the_legacy_of_eric_hoffer_part_ii/page/full
  15. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/03/12/intellectuals-and-race-n1531068/page/full
  16. Sowell, Thomas. Measles, Vaccines and Autism. Feb. 10, 2015.
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