Wealth, poverty and politics
by Thomas Sowell · first published 2015
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Cross-national survey of wealth and poverty that pushes back on simple explanations of inequality. Readers find it illuminating and practical, and recommend it as a counterpart to more ideological economics reading.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Sowell...argues that political and ideological struggles have led to dangerous confusion about income inequality in America. Pundits and politically motivated economists trumpet ambiguous statistics and sensational theories while ignoring the true determinant of income inequality: the production of wealth. We cannot properly understand inequality if we focus exclusively on the distribution of wealth and ignore wealth production factors such as geography, demography, and culture"--Amazon.com
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…a real, material way." The statement is at best extremely misleading, and at worse, mostly false. It also represents a juvenile, immature, and myopic perspective on reality. I would suggest reading "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics" or "Discrimination and Disparities" by Thomas Sowell. He has been debunking the "inequality of outcome therefore racism" logical fallacy for decades.
on “ProctorU is dystopian spyware” ↗…disagree, and so do other thinkers more well-known than I. With regards to "why are there poor and rich people", the answer is so complex as to occupy entire libraries. I've personally read Thomas Sowell's "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics", where he delves into a number of important factors for economic disparity that in vogue ideologues tend to ignore. And, that's the point. Their ideology blinds them to the complexity of the world. There…
on “Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors” ↗…"A History of Future Cities" by Daniel Brook - "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" by Carl Sagan (if you already read Pale Blue Dot which I appear to be late to the party on try "Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective" by Thomas Sowell) And if you're after fiction instead: - "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera - "The Cunning Man" by Robertson Davies - "East of Eden" by…
on “Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years” ↗…Toronto and NYC in the 70s and 80s which dramatically reduced the supply of new low income development because no one wanted to build with rent control when they could build somewhere else). I recommend “Wealth, Poverty, and Politics” by Sowell as a starter. For other examples of failures of gov run central industry making them worse off than before I highly recommend reading the Venezuela economy Wikipedia about all the stuff they…
on “Pay up or we’ll make Google ban your ads” ↗…economy and trade that resets periodically, within a week of a reset you'll see massive disparity in wealth between the top and everyone else that only grows over time. And I mean massive. You should read "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics." It really is illuminating to learn at an academic level how wealth has been produced throughout history and some reasons why it is distributed unevenly. https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Poverty-Politics-Thomas-Sowell...
on “We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX” ↗…the upper-middle class and above the most. He helped me grow beyond a cliche idealistic libertarian worldview into something much more practical and based in real world policy. I highly recommend his 'Wealth, Poverty and Politics': https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Poverty-Politics-Thomas-Sowell... Or for something more lightweight see his book 'Basic Economics': https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465... ---…
on “Does Adding Expensive Housing Help the Little Guy?” ↗…viewpoints are found in abundance on the left. As an example, a leftist over-simplifies that all group disparities must be caused by systemic injustice. This is deeply untrue, and, for instance, Sowell's "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics" is a treatise on the myriad of complexities that can result in group disparity that have nothing to do with social oppression or even occur in spite of it. But the SJW has a "map" of the territory, and…
I asked ChatGPT to explain the arguments of Sowell and Piketty. https://chatgpt.com/share/67eebae2-df3c-800b-aba9-6e36c04810... I liked Sowell's book, "Wealth, Poverty and Politics". Can you recommend one of Piketty's books? > raw materials - which often have to be sourced elsewhere Is that necessarily true? The US has abundant natural resources. Tesla could be mining lithium…
on “US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU” ↗If you’re reading Sowell. I would recommend Wealth, Poverty and Politics. :)
on “The Bulk of Software Engineering in 2018 Is Just Plumbing” ↗…sold) to help the poor/middle class that back fire, do nothing, or more often creates highly inefficient systems where only the politically connected get social benefits. I highly recommend his book "Wealth, poverty, and politics" [1]. It'd do a 100x better job than me at explaining his general worldview, which is closest to mine. And it's hardly just lower taxes for upper/middle and keep the rest of the political machine the…
…is not the origins of poverty which need to be explained, since the human species began in poverty. What requires explaining are the things that created and sustained higher standards of living." from Wealth, Poverty and Politics by Thomas Sowell "Modernity needs to understand that being rich and becoming rich are not mathematically, personally, socially, and ethically the same thing." from The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical…
on “How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company” ↗…Greeks claiming that all lightning comes from Zeus, God of thunder. And likely to be about as wrong in hindsight. In books like "Discrimination and Disparities", "Black Rednecks and White Liberals", and "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics", the author Thomas Sowell gives many examples of minority groups that prospered far above and beyond their relative majorities despite real and systemic oppression against them. And, in "Affirmative…
on “Affirmative action at US colleges has been banned” ↗>I liked Sowell's book, "Wealth, Poverty and Politics". Can you recommend one of Piketty's books? I'd say start with Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty. Its a great read, if a bit thick (its a very large tome indeed and very information…
on “US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU” ↗