Quotes from Thomas Sowell

Barack Obama is one of those people who are often wrong but never in doubt.

much of tropical Africa consists of high plateaus-almost the entire continent is more than 1.000 feet above sea-level and half the continent is more than 2,500 feet above sea-level-African rivers must plunge greater vertical distances to reach the sea, making them less navigable en route.

The range of human knowledge and expertise is limited for any given person or for any manageably-sized collection of administrators. Only a certain number of links in the great chain of production and distribution can be mastered and operated efficiently by the same set of people. Beyond some point, there are other people with different skills and experience who can perform the next step in the sequence more cheaply or more effectively—

los precios coordinan el uso de los recursos de tal manera que cada recurso se emplea tan sólo en la cantidad que es igual en valor a lo que vale para otros en usos distintos.

Since all countries around the world began poor, what requires an explanation is not why there is poverty but how some countries rose out of poverty to become prosperous.

Entre 1978 y 1995, China tuvo una espectacular tasa de crecimiento del 9 por ciento anual como consecuencia de la liberación de los precios que siguió a la muerte de Mao en 1976. Esto contrasta con los graves problemas económicos que tenía China a causa de las medidas de fuerte control gubernamental promovidas por ese líder comunista.

los economistas que observaron las consecuencias reales de una economía planificada de forma central llegaron a una conclusión muy diferente: que «existen demasiadas relaciones económicas, y resulta imposible tomarlas a todas en cuenta y coordinarlas de manera cuidadosa».

In short, the welfare state vision is not simply a theory to be tested empirically but a cause to be promoted and defended, ostensibly for the benefit of the less fortunate. But

40 In short, the era of corporate greed and the presumably ignorant and helpless consumer saw dramatic improvements in safety, before the anointed came to the rescue.

los recursos de una economía se usan ineficientemente cuando existe un monopolio, porque estos recursos estarían siendo transferidos de usos con mayor valor a usos con menor valor.

En una economía coordinada por los precios, los empleados y los acreedores insisten en que se les pague, independientemente de si los administradores o los propietarios hayan cometido errores. Esto significa que las empresas capitalistas pueden cometer muy pocos errores y durante muy poco tiempo, bajo el riesgo de detener su actividad, o de ser obligadas a ello, ya sea por la incapacidad de conseguir el trabajo y los insumos que necesitan, o por quiebra.

In short, attempts to equalize economic results lead to greater—and more dangerous—inequality in political power.

As Edmund Burke said, more than two centuries ago, "In history a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from past errors and infirmities of mankind." But he warned that the past could also be a means of "keeping alive, or reviving, dissensions and animosities.

The way the question is posed by many in the media and in politics, you would think our intelligence agencies were listening in on you talking on the phone to your aunt Mabel. Be serious! There are more than a quarter of a billion people in the United States. Intelligence agencies have neither the manpower, the time, the money, nor the interest to listen in on you and your aunt Mabel.

Articulation plays an important role in the dissemination of knowledge, as knowledge is conceived in the unconstrained vision.

Cuando la libre competencia en el mercado es reemplazada por la intervención de un tercero que obliga a las empresas a facilitar las cosas a sus competidores, cuesta ver cómo esto puede ayudar a la competencia, y no simplemente a los competidores

were now not only affluent themselves but were also able to help family members-hut only so long as they stayed in office.'-

Under these escalating wartime income tax rates, the number of people reporting taxable incomes of more than $300,000— a huge sum in the money of that era— declined from well over a thousand in 1916 to fewer than three hundred in 1921. The total amount of taxable income earned by people making over $300,000 declined by more than four-fifths during those years.[11

Sólo después, cuando el socialismo pasó de ser una teoría a ser un sistema económico real en varios países, se hizo dolorosamente evidente que las personas en los países socialistas tenían mayores problemas para costearse aquellas cosas que, en los países capitalistas, la mayoría de la gente podían comprar con facilidad.

Foreign workers, attracted to Nigeria from other African countries during boom times, were deeply resented during hard times-and were brutally expelled en masse, largely to Ghana.1N

large disparities in school performances among racial or ethnic groups (1) are unusual and suspicious, and (2) reflect differences in the way those groups are treated by the schools and/or the society. These

According to House minority leader Richard Gephardt: "What we have is two important values in direct conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy.

The tsetse fly infests more than half the mainland,' making cattle and draft animals impracticable in the infected regions.

90 percent of all deaths from malaria in the world occur in sub-Saharan Africa.45