Posted on 01/05/2015 8:58:57 AM PST by jazusamo
Some time ago, burglars in England scrawled a message on the wall of a home they had looted: "RICH BASTARDS."
Those two words captured the spirit of the politicized vision of equality — that it was a grievance when someone was better off than themselves.
That, of course, is not the only meaning of equality, but it is the predominant political meaning in practice, where economic "disparities" and "gaps" are automatically treated as "inequities." If one racial or ethnic group has a lower income than another, that is automatically called "discrimination" by many people in politics, the media and academia.
It doesn't matter how much evidence there is that some groups work harder in school, perform better and spend more postgraduate years studying to acquire valuable skills in medicine, science or engineering. If the economic end results are unequal, that is treated as a grievance against those with better outcomes, and a sign of an "unfair" society.
The rhetoric of clever people often confuses the undeniable fact that life is unfair with the claim that a given institution or society is unfair.
Children born into families that raise them with love and with care to see that they acquire knowledge, values and discipline that will make them valuable members of society have far more chances of economic and other success in adulthood than children raised in families that lack these qualities.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
His first biography is well worth reading. I haven’t read his second one yet but I hope to do so this next year.
Much like Forrest McDonald in the field of history, Sowell does not take conventional thought down a false path. His early work in economics taught him that research should be independent and based in true investigation of empirical evidence.
Re: Leftist ‘equality.’
‘...they always close the gap by lowering everyone.’
BUMP!
Yes, I understand. I just wanted to add the information, because I think it’s important. We hear so much about the difficulty in educating many children, and how we need to throw much more money into schooling, when it would be simple and inexpensive to make drastic improvements for many.
First, have adults talk to them. Second, teach them to read, using phonics. Third, have them spend their school time either reading or doing math. If I ever run an education program for anyone other than my own family, I’ll use nothing but math instruction, the Bible, and the complete works of Thomas Sowell ;-).
Seems like a no brainer, which explains a lot of peeps choices.
He keeps his columns very non-technical for the general reader. As his detailed books on Late Talking Children would stress, he very well understands all the detailed distinctions, he just did not want to “go into the weeds” while making his broader point in straight forward prose.Studies show that children whose parents have professional careers speak nearly twice as many words per hour to them as children with working class parents — and several times as many words per hour as children in families on welfare. There is no way that children from these different backgrounds are going to have equal chances of economic or other success in adulthood.He left out the connection between the facts and the conclusion, here. "Studies show" (wizard words ;-) that a child's school success can be predicted based on the number of words the child understands when he starts school. Verbal comprehension is both in itself a key academic ability, and a marker for a whole array of factors that contributed to academic success.
14 posted on January 5, 2015 at 12:55:02 PM EST by Tax-chick
I have a bookmark of a Sowell piece which, if I am still alive and FReeping on the dolorous day when Thomas Sowell assumes room temperature, I will repost as his obit:”Studies Prove”: Part II (Thomas Sowell)
It was just the other day that a FReeper used “wizard words” to describe the phrases journalists use to present opinion, imagination, or possibilities as absolutely verified, no question about it truth.
Mine says every door is a trap door.
Nine times out of ten, when I hear someone bellyaching about “inequality” nowadays, I’m actually hearing “I want a free ride!”
Very apt tribute the great professor Thomas Sowell!
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