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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The principles applied in economic processes are general social principles. — 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
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
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
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
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
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 Image
There is no bigger waste of time than doing 90% of what is necessary. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“One third of all Scots in the mid-nineteenth century moved from one county to another” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
