Social Justice Fallacies

by Thomas Sowell

Overview

In this instant New York Times bestseller, renowned economist Thomas Sowell demolishes the myths that underpin the social justice movement

The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.

However attractive the social justice vision, the crucial question is whether the social justice agenda will get us to the fulfillment of that vision. History shows that the social justice agenda has often led in the opposite direction, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. 

More things are involved besides simply mistakes. All human beings are fallible, and social justice advocates may not necessarily make any more mistakes than others. But crusaders with an utter certainty about their mission are often undeterred by obstacles, evidence or even fatal dangers. That is where much of the Western world is today. The question is whether we will continue on heedlessly, past the point of no return.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541603929
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	18,759
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. For more than half a century, his writings have appeared in both popular and scholarly publications, on both sides of the Atlantic, and his books have been translated into a dozen foreign languages. After a career as an economist in the government, academia and the corporate world, he has since 1980 been a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, devoting his efforts to research and writing, on subjects ranging from the history and influence of intellectuals to education and social policies in countries around the world. His website is www.tsowell.com.

Editorial Reviews

This book, as always, from Dr. Sowell, is bracing in the way it cuts through conventional wisdom and assumptions with facts and logic and explains how the world really works….If you read Social Justice Fallacies by Dr. Thomas Sowell…. you will have….intellectual ammunition, factual ammunition to make the case to fight against those fallacies and the dangerous direction that we are taking on so many areas of American life.”—Paul Gigot, Potomac Watch, Wall Street Journal

“The quality of his output has been even more impressive than its quantity.  Light on rhetoric, seriously heavy on data, and accessible in style, there is a reason why Sowell has been described as ‘among the most brilliant thinkers in the world today’ by Harvard University’s Steven Pinker and an ‘American sage’ by the Wall Street Journal…[Social Justice Fallacies] can equip anyone with the facts and concepts necessary to undercut the entire premise of a vision that is, at least for now, ascendant. And, in that way, Sowell’s newest book is yet another winner.”—The Washington Examiner

“Thomas Sowell’s Social Justice Fallacies is well worth reading.—American Institute for Economic Research

“With Social Justice Fallacies, Sowell has delivered yet another classic title – brave, deeply thought out and singularly frank.  The smartest man in the room has struck again…Here, the noted social commentator examines the powerful movement’s track record to show that many things that are thought to be true, simply cannot stand up to documented facts…Social Justice Fallacies is a game changing book…Meticulously researched…it goes beyond refuting fallacies to explore the crusaders’ very mindset and twisted view of reality…Social Justice Fallacies is an important book – a wakeup call to society.”—The Times of Israel

“The book shows how the intellectual giant has profoundly affected public policy and economics for decades."—National Review

“For some six decades Thomas Sowell has applied his legendary erudition and scholarship to challenge most progressive economic assumptions. Now he has summarized his countless scholarly articles and books to focus on the current age of woke social justice. The result is a timely reminder that free-market capitalism under the aegis of constitutional government has lifted the vast majority of Americans out of  poverty and ended racial oppression as it was defined just a generation ago. A brilliant warning that so much of our current strident rhetoric about victimization and a lack of equity is not grounded in either historical or economic data.”—Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Dying Citizen

From the Publisher

2023-10-13
The noted conservative economist delivers arguments both fiscal and political against social justice initiatives such as welfare and a federal minimum wage.

A Black scholar who has lived through many civil rights struggles, Sowell is also a follower of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who insisted that free market solutions are available for every social problem. This short book begins with what amounts to an impatient declaration that life isn’t fair. Some nations are wealthy because of geographical advantages, and some people are wealthy because they’re smarter than others. “Some social justice advocates may implicitly assume that various groups have similar developed capabilities, so that different outcomes appear puzzling,” he writes. In doing so, he argues, they fail to distinguish between equal opportunity and equal capability. Sowell is dismissive of claims that Black Americans and other minorities are systematically denied a level playing field: Put non-white kids in charter schools, he urges, and presto, their math scores will zoom northward as compared to those in public schools. “These are huge disparities within the same groups, so that neither race nor racism can account for these huge differences,” he writes, clearly at pains to distance himself from the faintest suggestion that race has anything to do with success or failure in America. At the same time, he isn’t exactly comfortable with the idea that economic inequalities exist, and he tries to finesse definitions to suit his convictions: “The terms ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ are misleading in another and more fundamental sense. These terms apply to people’s stock of wealth, not their flows of income.” As for crime? Give criminals more rights, he asserts, as with Miranda v. Arizona, and crime rates go up—an assertion that overlooks numerous other variables but fits Sowell’s ideological slant.

For those satisfied with blame-the-victim tidbits of received wisdom.

Kirkus Reviews