Rationalität gegen linke Träumer: Thomas Sowell zum 89. Geburtstag

Heute vor 89 Jahren wurde Thomas Sowell, der wohl größte noch lebenden Marktökonom unserer Zeit geboren. Sowell hat eine bemerkenswerte Karriere, die ihn zur Zusammenarbeit mit Josef Stiglitz und an die Harvard University, die Universitäten von Columbia, Cornell und Chiago und als Gastprofessor seit 1980 an die Stanford University geführt hat. Sowell ist nicht nur der bekannteste Ökonom, der eine freie Marktwirtschaft ohne wenn und aber vertritt, er ist auch ein unglaublich produktiver Schreiber: 46 Bücher hat er im Verlauf seiner Karriere geschrieben, zuletzt ein Buch mit dem Titel „Discrimination and Disparities“ im Jahre 2018.

Weil “Race” in den USA zum Gegenstand der intellektuellen Debatte und damit auch der Ökomomie gemacht wurde, hat sich Sowell diesem Thema in einer Vielzahl von Beiträgen gewidmet: „Economics and Politics of Race (1983), Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study (2004) und das zuletzt erschienen: „Discrimination and Disparities“ (2018) sind Beispiele dafür. Indes,

Sowell gehört nicht zu den Mainstream-Nickern, die in der institutionellen Wissenschaft so häufig geworden sind. Titel wie „Pink and Brown People and Other Controversial Essays” (1981), “Compassion versus Guild and Other Essays (1986), “Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One” (2003) oder “Economic Facts and Fallacies” (2007) zeigen den kritischen, den bissigen und streitbaren Thomas Sowell, der mit Sprache wie kaum ein anderer spielt und der Dinge sagen kann, die kaum ein anderer sagen kann, denn: Thomas Sowell ist schwarz, das macht ihn für Gutmenschen unkritisierbar.

Lassen wird Sowell selbst zu Wort kommen, ihn in Zitaten sprechen:

Economics and Politics

“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lessen of economics. Politics deals with the same problem by making promises that cannot be kept, or which can be kept only by creating other problems that cannot be acknowledged when the promises are made”.

Diversity

“If there is any place in the Guinness Book of World Records for words repeated the most often, over the most years, without one speck of evidence, “diversity” should be a prime candidate. Is diversity our strength? Or anybody’s strength, anywhere in the world? Does Japan’s homogeneous population cause the Japanese to suffer? Have the Balkans been blessed by their heterogeneity — or does the very word “Balkanization” remind us of centuries of strife, bloodshed and unspeakable atrocities, extending into our own times? Has Europe become a safer place after importing vast numbers of people from the Middle East, with cultures hostile to the fundamental values of Western civilization?

“When in Rome do as the Romans do” was once a common saying. Today, after generations in the West have been indoctrinated with the rhetoric of multiculturalism, the borders of Western nations on both sides of the Atlantic have been thrown open to people who think it is their prerogative to come as refugees and tell the Romans what to do — and to assault those who don’t knuckle under to foreign religious standards.
It has not been our diversity, but our ability to overcome the problems inherent in diversity, and to act together as Americans, that has been our strength.”

Greed

“Someone pointed out that blaming economic crises on “greed” is like blaming plane crashes on gravity. Certainly, planes wouldn’t crash if it wasn’t for gravity. But when thousands of planes fly millions of miles every day without crashing, explaining why a particular plane crashed because of gravity gets you nowhere. Neither does talking about “greed,” which is constant like gravity.”

Noch ein paar Bonmots:

“We all believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. Some on the left believe that they are innocent even after being proven guilty.”

— Thomas Sowell (@SowellDaily) November 29, 2018

“At least half of our society’s troubles come from know-it-alls, in a world where nobody knows even 10 percent of all.”

— Thomas Sowell (@SowellDaily) November 29, 2018

Quote from Thomas Sowell’s new book Discrimination and Disparities which is available today: https://t.co/e3WtdWtIiJ pic.twitter.com/0QXWePaOPT

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 20, 2018

The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 29, 2019

What “multiculturalism” boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture—and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 27, 2019

Demagogues have always aimed their messages at the unthinking and the uninformed. Unfortunately, today that includes many of our college students.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 26, 2019

We should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 17, 2019

Zum Abschluss noch zwei Videos mit Thomas Sowell:

Happy Birthday, Thomas Sowell!

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