Thomas Sowell Book Economic Facts and Fallacies Review
Tamara Wilhite is a technical writer, industrial engineer, mother of two, and published sci-fi and horror author.
Introduction
"Economic Facts and Fallacies" by Thomas Sowell came out in 2008, but like many of Thomas Sowell's other books on economics, it remains a classic. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this book? How does it compare to his other major works?
The Cover of "Economic Facts and Fallacies" by Sowell
Tamara Wilhite
The Strengths of "Economic Facts and Fallacies"
One of the beauties of Thomas Sowell's writing style as well as his speaking is that he simplifies concepts that take others a page into a sentence, or at most, a paragraph.
Thomas Sowell draws on sources far beyond i study or another to create a comprehensive ground for his refutation of major economic fallacies. For example, instead of only looking at the negative impact of rent control in New York City and San Francisco, he too looks at the problems it acquired in Egypt.
His critique of the idea that minimum wage helps the poor (when information technology actually increases unemployment) pulls from examples from Europe to the United states of america. He likewise uses information from as far back as 1900 to demonstrate long term trends to support his arguments, not just the latest survey that may exist biased by today'southward politics.
Instead of simply critiquing fallacies similar the minimum wage, hire control and other unproductive or counter-productive policies, he explains why these fallacies exist. For example, nosotros look at the shiny new buildings of the "redevelopment", ignoring the touch on the poor individuals forced to movement somewhere else and the fact that the wealth attracted to the redeveloped area came from somewhere else. Because the poor who were just redistributed and many of the older businesses are only destroyed, nosotros don't run into the harm done, merely the "practiced". It is similar to the headline stories of someone whose income went up afterwards the local minimum wage increased, just there are almost stories of those who lost their jobs so businesses could yet stay open or the women harmed by childcare costs going upwardly along with the minimum wage. He talks about how "smart growth" that limits housing supply and restricts new construction inevitably leads to an "affordable housing crisis" unless the area is becoming depopulated.
He also describes the root fallacies that sociologists, other economists and political theorists have that cause them to promote ideas that repeatedly fail when implemented in the real world. For example, he describes the chess pieces fallacy, the belief that you tin can but proceed making major changes until a policy "works", whereas social engineers negate the cost of these abiding changes and the tendency in people to cease investing and creating out of fright of losing it all.
This volume was written as the student loan "crisis" manifested, later coming to a head in the 2016 ballot. He outlines how and why colleges are able to inflate costs for students while demanding (and often receiving) more than coin from taxpayers, regardless of quality of graduates.
Economist Thomas Sowell's book gives universalist examples others ignore to claiming fallacies, such as the fact that black Northern soldiers did ameliorate on IQ tests in the Civil War era than southern whites, so blacks in the U.S. weren't less intelligent on average than whites, and the root cause for lower IQ scores past both races was Southern civilisation. Mr. Sowell'southward columns routinely provided information to explain issues attributed to racism that are actually due to differences among groups like average age (which correlates to income) and union rates (affects law-breaking and poverty rates). This book gives y'all an entire unbiased chapter on these bug.
The Weaknesses of "Economical Facts and Fallacies"
When a book uses data over a century to back its claims, in that location are few complaints you can make. The book is due for an update of the references to data sets that end effectually 2000 to 2008.
Observations
This book is a fraction of the length of Thomas Sowell'due south authentication work "Basic Economics". While someone could gain the equivalent of an economic science degree by reading "Basic Economics", "Economic Facts and Fallacies" can exist seen as a correction and/or counterpoint to many of the commonly held misconceptions that those who take learned about business elsewhere or picked up ideas from popular civilisation that merely are not true. Therefore, yous tin can read this book after "Basic Economics", before it or separately from it simply not in place of information technology.
Gyre to Continue
Read More From Owlcation
Thomas Sowell's logical and detailed analysis of fallacies well-nigh race and economics, like the myth that blacks' loftier unemployment and criminal offence is due to bigotry instead of the breakdown of the black family since 1960, has led to this blackness Ivy League economist beingness chosen racist. Unfortunately today, information technology is only possible for a blackness human being to hash out how poverty rates were falling faster before Ceremonious Rights legislation and affirmative action than later with minimal name-calling.
He is less often called sexist for describing the real world data on women'south tendency to piece of work fewer hours, travel less and brand other choices that contribute to the "wage gap". He also brings up cases like the decline in women's proportion of college faculty being lower in the 1960s than in the 1930s, including at women'due south colleges, so you cannot attribute the decline to sexism. It is really tied to women'south average age of marriage.
His chapter "Third World Facts and Fallacies" touches on how geography affects cultures, peoples and their outcomes. "Guns, Germs and Steel" is a good in depth book on this topic.
For a improve understanding on how property rights and other cultural differences led to the success of Europe and its colonies over the rest of the earth, I suggest watching the TED talk "The six killer apps of prosperity" past Niall Ferguson.
Summary
I give Thomas Sowell's "Economic Facts and Fallacies" five stars as an eye-opening and educational resources. It isn't a curt primer of his masterpiece "Basic Economics" but instead addresses and explains why many major economic fallacies exist and why they are incorrect, in plain linguistic communication and easily accessible examples.
Tamara Wilhite (author) from Fort Worth, Texas on March 04, 2018:
Mr. Sowell has written quite a few books. Have you read whatsoever in the intervening months?
Tamara Wilhite (author) from Fort Worth, Texas on October xix, 2017:
Leah Hadley-Villalobos Thank you for the complement.
Leah Hadley-Villalobos from Cleveland on April 04, 2017:
I enjoyed your review. This looks similar an interesting book. I'grand calculation it to my listing.
Ronald E Franklin from Mechanicsburg, PA on April 03, 2017:
I've read some of Thomas Sowell'southward columns, but never any of his books. Your review has stimulated me to check him out (literally) at the library.
Source: https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Economic-Facts-and-Fallacies-by-Sowell-a-Book-Review