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
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
“opportunity alone is not sufficient for economic or other accomplishments.” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
What does 'economic justice' mean, except that you want something that someone else produced, without having to produce anything yourself in return? — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The principles applied in economic processes are general social principles. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Our economic problems worry me much less than our political solutions, which have a far worse track record. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Any politician who starts shouting election-year demagoguery about the rich and the poor should be asked, "What about the other 90 percent… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
People in the political world have every incentive to say things that lead voters away from a clear economic understanding of issues.… — 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
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: 'But what would you replace… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are… — 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
The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody… — 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
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
Since man does not create physical matter, those who handle material objects in the production process are not producers in that sense.… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If one writing contributed more than any other to the framework in which this work Sowell's Knowledge and Decisions developed, it would… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The most basic inherent constraint is that neither time nor wisdom are free goods available in unlimited quantity. This means that in… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Anyone who has actually had to take responsibility for consequences by running any kind of enterprise whether economic or academic, or even… — 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
If increased government spending with borrowed or newly created money is a 'stimulus,' then the Weimar Republic should have been stimulated to… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
It is precisely those members of Congress who have had the most to do with creating the risks that led to the… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The Obama administration seems to be following what might be called 'the Detroit pattern increasing taxes, harassing businesses, and pandering to unions.… — 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
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
