The principles applied in economic processes are general social principles. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Leaving prices out of the picture is probably the source of more fallacies in economics than any other single misconception. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“nineteenth century economic development was "the development of continents instead of coast lines."98” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
One of the beauties of an economy coordinated by price movements is that nobody has to understand it in order for it… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
What is politically defined as economic planning is the forcible superseding of other people's plans by Government officials. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The economic disasters of socialism and communism come from assuming a blanket superiority of those who want to run a whole economy. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
People who know nothing about advertising, nothing about pharmaceuticals, and nothing about economics have been loudly proclaiming that the drug companies spend… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The first rule of economics is that there is an infinite number of desires chasing a finite number of goods, services and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
People who have never run even a modest little business assert with great certainty and indignation that heads of multinational corporations are… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If politicians were serious about day care for children, instead of just sloganizing about it, nothing they could do would improve the… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Just as a poetic discussion of the weather is not meteorology, so an issuance of moral pronouncements or political creeds about the… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“massive role of government in the economy has made politics the pre-eminent route to prosperity, as well as power-whether for individuals, tribes,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Why the transfer of decisions from those with personal experience and a stake in the outcome to those with neither can be… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Prices impose the most effective kind of rationing - self-rationing. Why is rationing necessary? Because what everybody wants always adds up to… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Perhaps the most widespread misunderstanding of economics is that it applies solely to financial transactions. Frequently this leads to statements that "there… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. It's purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Most intellectuals outside the field of economics show remarkably little interest in learning even the basic fundamentals of economics. Yet they do… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
During the 1930s, some of the leading intellectuals in America condemned our economic system and pointed to the centrally planned Soviet economy… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The dominant orthodoxy in development economics was that Third World countries were trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty that could be… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
However little president Obama knows or cares about economics, he knows a lot about politics - and especially political rhetoric. 'High-speed rail'… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
People who believe in evolution in biology often believe in creationism in government. In other words, they believe that the universe and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“Economics is more than just a way to see patterns or to unravel puzzling anomalies. Its fundamental concern is with the material… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“When I was an undergraduate studying economics under Professor Arthur Smithies of Harvard, he asked me in class one day what policy… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth - and that future wealth… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
What is called 'capitalism' might more accurately be called consumerism. It is the consumers who call the tune, and those capitalists who… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The desire of businessmen for profits is what drives prices down unless forcibly prevented from engaging in price competition, usually by governmental… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade.… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Lunches don't get free just because you don't see the prices on the menu. And economists don't get popular by reminding people… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Capitalism is not an 'ism.' It is closer to being the opposite of an 'ism,' because it is simply the freedom of… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The inefficiency of political control of an economy has been demonstrated more often, in more places, and under more varied conditions, than… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The vocabulary of the political left is fascinating. For example, it is considered to be 'materialistic' and 'greedy' to want to keep… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
At least half of the popular fallacies about economics come from assuming that economic activity is a zero-sum game, in which what… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Failure is a big part of a free market's success. People fail to live up to their potential, or to carry out… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom - whether black or white… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“In 1962, Democratic President John F. Kennedy, like both Democratic and Republican Presidents and Secretaries of the Treasury in earlier years, pointed out that “it… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Ideological bigotry has become the norm on even our most prestigious campuses, where students can go for years without reading or hearing anything that… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“One third of all Scots in the mid-nineteenth century moved from one county to another” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
The difference is that we have the hardest and most painful evidence that there was a Holocaust. But, for the global warming scenario that… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“Just as price fluctuations allocate scarce resources which have alternative uses, price controls which limit those fluctuations reduce the incentives for individuals to limit… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
The greatest danger to the liberal vision are facts about the consequences of liberalism itself and the laws, policies, and ways of life that… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Having spent years ruining the housing markets with their interference, leading to a housing meltdown that has taken the whole economy down with it,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Do all children have some inherent right to live in America if they have done nothing wrong? If not, then why should the children… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
What 'eminent domain' laws mean in practice is that politicians have a right to seize your property and turn it over to someone else,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“those parts of the British Isles without the advantage of coal deposits or ports, industrialization was as handicapped as in other countries.” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
The whole idea of equal justice under law is completely incompatible with the idea of judges deciding cases according to "empathy". — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
