Posted tagged ‘The War On Poverty’

Thomas Sowell Discusses “Fact Free Liberals”

January 23, 2014

Thomas Sowell

I love when Thomas Sowell writes articles taking the educated elite to the cleaners by challenging  the facts they cite to prove their reality. The first article is titled, Fact-Free Liberals, read here. Here are some excerpts from the article.

“Someone summarized Barack Obama in three words — “educated,” “smart” and “ignorant.” Unfortunately, those same three words would describe all too many of the people who come out of our most prestigious colleges and universities today.”

“……The net results are bright people, with impressive degrees, who have been told for years how brilliant they are, but who are often ignorant of facts that might cause them to question what they have been indoctrinated with in schools and colleges.”

“All too often when liberals cite statistics, they forget the statisticians’ warning that correlation is not causation.”

“But who reads history these days? Moreover, those parts of history that would undermine the vision of the left — which prevails in our education system from elementary school to postgraduate study — are not likely to get much attention.”

After wetting your appetite by tackling issues like women getting paid three-quarters of what men make, income mobility, black applicants for mortgage loans being turned down at twice the rate of white applicants, and other issues , he challenges more Progressive sacred cows in his next article titled, “Fact Free Liberals: Part II”, read here. Here are some excerpts from this article.

“Words seem to carry far more weight than facts among liberal….”

“When words trump facts, you can believe anything. And the liberal groupthink taught in our schools and colleges is the path of least resistance.”

He analyzes rent control laws, and minimum wage laws in this article, and then takes on “the war on poverty, sex education, and the murder rate in this article titled, “Fact-Free Liberals: Part III”, read here. Here are some excerpts from the article.

“The actual signing of the “war on poverty” legislation took place in August 1964, so the 50th anniversary is some months away. But there have already been statements in the media and in politics proclaiming that this vast and costly array of anti-poverty programs “worked”.”

Of course everything “works” by sufficiently low standards, and everything “fails” by sufficiently high standards. The real question is: What did the “war on poverty” set out to do — and how well did it do it, if at all?

“Without some idea of what a person or a program is trying to do, there is no way to know whether what actually happened represented a success or a failure. When the hard facts show that a policy has failed, nothing is easier for its defenders than to make up a new set of criteria, by which it can be said to have succeeded.”

“While the fact-free liberals celebrate the “war on poverty” and other bright ideas of the 1960s, we are trying to cope with yet another “reform” that has made matters worse, ObamaCare.”

Reading Thomas Sowells books is like receiving a vaccine, inoculating you from the lies of politicians, journalists, and the educational establishment, who are unapologetic about pushing their ideology through propaganda.

Other Thomas Sowell Posts You Might Like.

Thomas Sowell’s Vision of the Anointed, at austrianaddict.com. Short video.

Thomas Sowell Used To Be A Marxist? at austrianaddict.com. Short video.

Thomas Sowells Take On The Federal Reserve, at austrianaddict.com. Short video.

Thomas Sowell- “Economic Problems Don’t Have Political Solutions”, at austrianaddict.com. video.

Must Reads For The Week 1/11/14

January 11, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)

The Forgotten Man (“The War On Poverty” Edition), by Chris Rossini, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The 50 year anniversary of the war on poverty begs the question: how much could have been produced, (including jobs) with all the money spent to fight the war on poverty?

NY Fed President Warns: We Have No Idea If We Will Be Able to Smoothly Unwind the Trillions In Excess Reserves if That Money Starts to Hit the Economy, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Look at the chart of all the electronically printed counterfeit money the Fed has printed since the “08” crisis. This money is blowing up the stock market bubble, it certainly isn’t creating jobs, as the chart in the article below shows.

People Not In Labor Force Soars To Record 91.8 Million; Labor Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Lows, at zerohedge.com. These charts show the truth about unemployment. The unemployment rate dropping to 6.7% is meaningless outside of politics. A majority of the jobs created last month weren’t full-time, as the chart in the post below shows.

More Than Half Of December Jobs Added Were Temporary, at zerohedge.com. If fewer people are working, and the people with jobs are working fewer hours, are we consuming more than we are producing? Are we reaching the tipping point.

The Real Unemployment Rate, at zerohedge.com. People who aren’t looking for work are not counted as unemployed. I guess the unemployment rate depends on who you count as unemployed. This article shows more of what we are talking about in the previous articles.

Fed’s Jeff Lacker Admits “Asset Bubble”, And Reluctance To Pop It, at zerohedge.com. This isn’t the first time Lacker couldn’t bite his tongue before the truth slipped out. Read Here.

The Most Popular Political Party In America Is…, by Larry Krieger, at Liberty Blitzkrieg Blog, via zerohedge.com. The charts in this article show the increase of people identifying themselves as independents, while identification with the Republican and Democrat parties shrink. The information age is cutting into the monopoly that Government propaganda sources, like the mainstream media and the education system, have enjoyed for decades. The progressive central planners in both parties are starting to lose their advantage and won’t go quietly. The argument for individual liberty is winning.

The United States Of Shame – What Is Your State Worst At?, at zerohedge.com. I think I want to move to Idaho.

The Dumbest New Ban In 2014: Incandescent Light Bulbs, by Nick Gillespie and Todd Karinan, at reason.com. GE, Sylvania, and Philips went to Government to rig the market for their new more expensive CFLs when consumers decided they didn’t want to purchase these light bulbs. Crony capitalism at its finest.