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Sowell is a good author who doesnt concern himself with impressing the reader with comlexity - rather - he crystallizes the problem and solution in an easy to read form for the reader. This is a good read for those seeking to understand basic applied economic thought.
So we're left to conclude that Sowell is intentionally trying to mislead the reader. In particular he cites Washington Post comments on the slight decline of average wages from 1980 to 2004. However, if you want honest economic analysis then look elsewhere. The problem is that those 3 years are far from representative.
A representative example is his chapter on "Income Facts and Fallacies". If what you want is clever spin to support an ideology of "market=good, government=bad" then this book may be for you. This book is dishonest. I know that is a strong accusation, but let's judge from its contents. Sowell first responds by citing a 74% increase in average real consumption over the same period. By citing figures for 1993-1996 to support this he "refutes" a 24 year trend with a 3 year slice of time.
Sowell clearly has a severe ideological bias. The major employment gains in those years were in business services and non-depository financial institutions ([.].). The 3 year figure does not refute the larger 24 year fact. His credentials do not indicate the level of incompetence that would be necessary for making so many specious arguments unintentionally. What he doesn't discuss is how much of this consumption was funded by borrowing, particularly mortgages. Throughout the book Sowell purports to refute "fallacies" about apples with statistics about carefully selected oranges. The book is replete with misleading comparisons and statistics.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report I cite attributes financial services growth in the 90's to "buying and refinance activity, especially for mortgage bankers and brokers" and the business services growth to the rise in temporary staffing services. Sowell later argues that wages have not fallen because of replacement of high paying manufacturing jobs with low paying service jobs. He sets out to refute the "fallacy" that average US wages have not risen in decades. We now know all too well why this is important.
It puts in place the current econominc fallacies which are widely held as truisms. This book is a must have.
I expected a book that dissects common perceptions and then backs it up with a collection of scientific studies that demonstrates reality. I found this book biased: in many places he validly finds flaws in prevailing socio-political arguments, but when he provides his own views, I found them just as flawed. This book is not that.In many ways, I feel this book in more philosophical and political than economic.In considering my review, I think you should know my biases: I'm highly quantitative, I have a PhD in Computer Science and I consider myself economically moderate and socially liberal. Perhaps a book in the flavor of Freakonomics, but with a bit more rigor. Perhaps it would be better if I shared his political views.I should say that I bought this book because I love data / statistics and I hate it when people manipulate them. Between the title and the author (an economics professor), I was really excited.
He does a nice job of picking apart the biases that underlie the beliefs of the media and politicians. An economics degree is not needed to understand the topics discussed. As usual, Dr. Sowell, comments on several current cultural issues and their facts and fallacies with a straitforward style that is well researched and referenced.
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