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Sowell: The Fact-Free Left: Part II
Creators Syndicate ^ | July 22, 2015 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 07/22/2015 1:38:21 PM PDT by jazusamo

There is no way to know what is going on in someone else's mind. But sometimes their behavior tells you more than their words.

The political left's great claim to authenticity and honor is that what they advocate is for the benefit of the less fortunate. But how could we test that?

T.S. Eliot once said, "Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."

This suggests that one way to find out if those who claim to be trying to help the less fortunate are for real is to see if they are satisfied to simply advocate a given policy, and see it through to being imposed — without also testing empirically whether the policy is accomplishing what it set out to do.

The first two steps are enough to let advocates feel important and righteous. Whether you really care about what happens to the supposed beneficiaries of the policy is indicated by whether you bother to check out the empirical evidence afterwards.

Many, if not most, people who are zealous advocates of minimum wage laws, for example, never check to see if these laws do more good by raising some workers' wages than harm by preventing many young and inexperienced workers from finding jobs.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: housing; leftism; minimumwage; rentcontrol; sowell; thomassowell
The Fact-Free Left: Part I
1 posted on 07/22/2015 1:38:21 PM PDT by jazusamo
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2 posted on 07/22/2015 1:39:25 PM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo

What if they do know the damage they cause?


3 posted on 07/22/2015 2:05:45 PM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Raycpa

You mean like Obama?


4 posted on 07/22/2015 3:51:06 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: Raycpa

Even knowing the damage they cause, their dedication to the pursuit of the agenda keeps them from caring about “collateral damage”.


5 posted on 07/22/2015 4:01:19 PM PDT by Bob (No, being a US Senator and the Secretary of State are not accomplishments; they're jobs.)
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To: jazusamo

It is virtually impossible to have a rational discussion with those on the Left about almost any issue … because they speak and act based on emotions and what “feels good” for them, rather than FACTS. It is like trying to have a serious discussion with a 3-year-old, except that the Lefties are far nastier and much more close-minded.


6 posted on 07/22/2015 4:25:53 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: Bob
Even knowing the damage they cause, their dedication to the pursuit of the agenda keeps them from caring about “collateral damage”.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." ---C.S. Lewis

7 posted on 07/22/2015 4:27:07 PM PDT by itsahoot (55 years a republican-Now Independent. Will write in Sarah Palin, no matter who runs. RIH-GOP)
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8 posted on 07/22/2015 5:06:24 PM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: Raycpa

“What if they do know the damage they cause?”

No problem. It’s the thought that counts.


9 posted on 07/22/2015 11:50:37 PM PDT by haroldeveryman
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To: haroldeveryman

The ends justify the means, or rather the means justify the ends in the case of the left.


10 posted on 07/23/2015 4:25:54 AM PDT by jurroppi1 (The only thing you "pass to see what's in it" is a stool sample. h/t MrB)
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