Do you know what Thomas Sowell’s position regarding the civil rights act is? I searched but I cannot find it. I am absolutely sure that he is against it. And I ask because I have awesome respect for Thomas Sowell. Plus he is black. So I can silence any dumb liberal who says to my objection to it, “oh that means you support racism” by telling them that Sowell is on my side.
Thank you.
Although he objects to the literature of the bill, Sowell’s main argument against it is the reasoning behind it; what he calls the “civil rights vision.”
I read this book after hearing Tom Woods speak so highly of during his speech entitled “Civil Rights and Statism,” which was part of his lecture series on the History of Liberty. (Available on iTunes U).
At only about 200 pages, Civil Rights: Rhetoric or reality? is absolutely a must-read.
Atheist you should watch this:
Uncommon Knowledge: Thomas Sowell
He has a couple interviews with them, in a couple of them he talked about civil rights act etc
Haha, the perfect supplement to that argument. If you don’t mind me asking, are you just against Title II of the Act because of it forcing private companies to not discriminate, or are you against all of the Act? If you’re against the entire Act, why?
By the way, this isn’t supposed to sound demeaning or anything. I’m personally against Title II. I’ve never really been given any reason to not support the rest of the Act besides the fact that I don’t think nearly as many things should be federally funded at all, but I love to hear outside opinions. I was so mad that so many people blasted Rand Paul about his stance on it without even understanding.
Walter Williams is superior to Sowell when it comes to being libertarian. Sowell may be the better economist, I am not sure.
I do support an end to discrimination that was imposed by the state itself. Yes, of course. So I guess you can say I support 90% of the Civil Rights Act. However, I prefer to say, “I am against the Civil Rights Act” because it makes me sounds hardcore. I like to sound hardcore. In fact, when I discuss libertarian ideas with people I openly say that I am against private discrimination laws. They never ask me for my views, rather I just let them know. I did this in college once, haha. I like to sound tough, and I am not afraid to stand by my views like Rand Paul is.
Here are two great videos on the Civil Rights Act. This time by Walter E Williams!
In what way is Walter Williams superior to Thomas Sowell?
Sowell is weak on the the recent crisis, blaming it all on things like Fannie, Freddie, and community reinvestment.
Which is wrong how?
Ignores ABCT.
Is Walter Williams better on ABCT? How Austrian is he?
@Jesse, I emailed him not too long ago to ask if he’s ever analyzed ABCT and he said “No.”.
Interesting. It doesn’t seem like Williams is any better than Sowell, then.
Well I think Liberty Student got it right when he said :
I also cannot exactly put my finger on it, and its true that neither are Austrians, I just get a stronger libertarian vibe from Williams. I read some of Sowell’s Economic Facts and Fallacies which I didn’t think was terrible, but then a while back I saw some videos of him talking about intellectuals, and while he started off pretty libertarian, he was talking like a warmonger latter on. He seems more like a conservative that is stronger than average on economics. Williams, who I am less familiar with, has struck me more as a genuine libertarian, he is also sort of soft spoken.
A taste of what they were like in the early 80s:
Williams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1r-r6iLBEI
Sowell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GklCBvS-eI don’t know if anger is the right word, but he certainly seems more aggressive than Williams.
In case anyone was interested:
Sowell talking about the Housing Boom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GoAGuTIbVY&feature=related
question at 6:20 mark is just begging for someone to say the FED.
At the 12:50 mark, he is asked who was the worst actor between Barney Frank, Bush, and Greenspan, AND HE SAID FRANK! ‘easily!’
Here is Williams sounding Austrian or at least somewhat Austrian in this explanation of the recent crisis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eiybm8yXg5A&feature=related
I recall listening about 6 months ago to the tenth lecture (the one on Reperations) of Walter Block’s lecture on Radical Libertarianism. In it, Block mentions Williams a lot and refers to him as being “sound as a bell on economics.”
If Walter “moderate” Block is a fan of Williams’ economics, the latter must be pretty darn close to Austrianism.
Let’s start with the fact that Sowell is not a libertarian.
Sowell is one of the most fiercely pro-war, pro-violence economists out there. He criticises “leftist intelligentsia” for being weak on fighting enemies abroad, and says that torture is a good thing, because it helped stop attacks after 9/11.
Secondly, let’s just leave it at the fact that Sowell is a Republican Party cheerleader, who backs men like Bush, because he somehow feels that “conservatives” are marginalised by mainstream media, and feels that the few Republicans who ever come to office manage to do so for making bold changes.
I say all this as a great admirer of Sowell, who has read most of his amazing books.
Is Williams any different than Sowell in this regard? From what I’ve gathered, their foreign policy views are pretty similar.
Doesn’t seem to make any sense for somebody who is trying to stand up for the minority races to be pro war. Seems like war in America (especially in the Vietnam conflict) is something where a lot of poor minorities die so that a couple of politically connected white people can make millions of dollars.
It’s true; Sowell is a sharp, clear thinker until it becomes the subject of war, at which point his critical thinking skills seem to fly out the window. It’s a shame because I’ve found his work on discrimination and civil rights very smart and interesting.