Thomas Sowell

I mentioned Thomas Sowell briefly before, as a hero of mine.

I wish he were a little less Establishment conservative and a little more antiEstablishment libertarian. I keep thinking he's one of us, and then I'll discover that he supports some Friedmanite/Catoite faux-libertarian, neoliberal proposal for a more "market friendly" bit of government management.

But anyway, he produces some excellent quotes for my economics quotes collection, such as:

• Raising Social Security taxes today will not leave a dime more to pay pensions to future retirees. Right now there is more money coming into the system than is going out -- and the difference gets spent on other things. Higher taxes now would mean a bigger excess to be spent on other things, leaving nothing more for the future.

• Time and again, over the centuries, price controls have produced three things: shortages, quality deterioration and black markets. Why would anyone want any of those things with pharmaceutical drugs?

• What "eminent domain" laws mean in practice is that politicians have a right to seize your property and turn it over to someone else, in order to gain campaign contributions and win votes.

• It is amazing how many people think that the government's role is to give them what they want by overriding what other people want.

• A check of official records shows that my property line extends farther than I thought -- but laws prevent me from using that additional land. However, I can probably be sued if anyone gets injured while trespassing on it. In other words, I am worse off for owning more land than I thought I had.

• If the government gave a $5,000 subsidy to anyone who buys an automobile, do you doubt that the price of automobiles would go up -- perhaps by $5,000? Why then does no one see any connection between government subsidies to college students and rising tuition?

(Thanks to line in the sand for pointing to Sowell's Random thoughts article.)