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Sowell: The 'Fairness' Fraud
Creators Syndicate ^ | February 25, 2014 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 02/24/2014 10:28:43 AM PST by jazusamo

It seems as if, everywhere you turn these days, there are studies claiming to show that America has lost its upward mobility for people born in the lower socioeconomic levels. But there is a sharp difference between upward "mobility," defined as an opportunity to rise, and mobility defined as actually having risen.

That distinction is seldom even mentioned in most of the studies. It is as if everybody is chomping at the bit to get ahead, and the ones that don't rise have been stopped by "barriers" created by "society."

When statistics show that sons of high school dropouts don't become doctors or scientists nearly as often as the sons of Ph.D.s, that is taken as a sign that American society is not "fair."

If equal probabilities of achieving some goal is your definition of fairness, then we should all get together — people of every race, color, creed, national origin, political ideology and sexual preference — and stipulate that life has never been fair, anywhere or any time in all the millennia of recorded history.

Then we can begin at last to talk sense.

I know that I never had an equal chance to become a great ballet dancer like Rudolph Nureyev. The thought of becoming a ballet dancer never once crossed my mind in all the years when I was growing up in Harlem. I suspect that the same thought never crossed the minds of most of the guys growing up on New York's lower east side.

Does that mean that there were unfair barriers keeping us from following in the footsteps of Rudolph Nureyev?

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: sowell; thomassowell
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1 posted on 02/24/2014 10:28:43 AM PST by jazusamo
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To: abigail2; Amalie; American Quilter; arthurus; awelliott; Bahbah; bamahead; Battle Axe; ...
*PING*
Thomas Sowell

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Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to or removed from the Thomas Sowell ping list…

2 posted on 02/24/2014 10:29:50 AM PST by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: jazusamo

I’m ‘upwardly mobile’ but someone keeps lengthening the ladder....................


3 posted on 02/24/2014 10:32:23 AM PST by Red Badger (LIberal is an oxymoron......................)
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To: jazusamo

At least Sowell took a break from bashing Ted Cruz to write this article.


4 posted on 02/24/2014 10:34:30 AM PST by MNGal
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To: Red Badger

How far someone advances, in terms of achievement, should be measured from their starting point.


5 posted on 02/24/2014 10:38:48 AM PST by Beagle8U (Unions are an Affirmative Action program for Slackers! .)
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To: Red Badger

They only do that so you can reach your maximum potential. :-)


6 posted on 02/24/2014 10:38:59 AM PST by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: jazusamo

Lost a lot of respect for Thomas Sowell after he took up the GOP-E Surrender Monkey banner and attacked Ted Cruz.


7 posted on 02/24/2014 10:39:50 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: SoConPubbie

I certainly believe he is wrong about Ted Cruz.


8 posted on 02/24/2014 10:41:40 AM PST by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: jazusamo
Those who preach this counterproductive message will probably never think that the envy, resentment and hopelessness they preach, and the welfare state they promote, are among the factors keeping people down.

It almost seems like they are doing this purposely.

9 posted on 02/24/2014 10:44:02 AM PST by oldbrowser (Obamacare is Obama's Great Leap Forward)
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To: Beagle8U

True, but they keep moving the goalposts.....................


10 posted on 02/24/2014 10:51:20 AM PST by Red Badger (LIberal is an oxymoron......................)
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To: sauropod

.


11 posted on 02/24/2014 10:51:40 AM PST by sauropod (Fat Bottomed Girl: "What difference, at this point, does it make?")
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Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

12 posted on 02/24/2014 10:57:17 AM PST by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: jazusamo

Has he finally decided to start bashing leftism again?


13 posted on 02/24/2014 10:57:55 AM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: MNGal

Yes, it’s a nice breather from the backstabbing last week.


14 posted on 02/24/2014 11:01:55 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: MNGal

“At least Sowell took a break from bashing Ted Cruz to write this article.”

Scrutiny from your own side is not necessarily such a bad thing.
Had the Democrats and, particularly, left leaning independents
scrutinized the current POTUS, the nation might now have better
leadership.


15 posted on 02/24/2014 11:03:40 AM PST by Sivad (NorCal red turf)
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To: Sivad

“Scrutiny from your own side is not necessarily such a bad thing.”

I agree, but I thought that the 3 or 4 anti-Cruz articles in 1 week was a little much.


16 posted on 02/24/2014 11:09:15 AM PST by MNGal
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To: Sivad

The do-nothing, Dem-loving GOPe or someone who actually stands and fights and inspires?

tough choice.


17 posted on 02/24/2014 11:10:38 AM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: Sivad; MNGal
Scrutiny from your own side is not necessarily such a bad thing. Had the Democrats and, particularly, left leaning independents scrutinized the current POTUS, the nation might now have better leadership.

Care to share how you think the drivel that Dr. Sowell published about Ted Cruz will EVER lead to better leadership from the GOP-E
18 posted on 02/24/2014 11:10:40 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: jazusamo
The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theories on an order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the type of grinding poverty that you're talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they've had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it is in exactly the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that ... the record of history is absolutely crystal clear …. that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people, that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system …. Milton Friedman
19 posted on 02/24/2014 11:15:43 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: MNGal; SoConPubbie

Sowell made a mistake with Cruz, but Sowell has been fighting liberalism effectively for longer than Cruz has been in politics. We cannot afford to throw him under the bus for one mistake.


20 posted on 02/24/2014 11:19:49 AM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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