Here is an interview with Thomas Sowell, one of the clearest voices on economics and other policy issues. Sowell discusses his new book Intellectuals and Society with Peter Robinson.
If you have not read Thomas Sowell before, you must listen to this interview. Sowell covers a wide range of topics including the Great Depression, our current economic crisis, the fallacy of appeasing dictators, global warming and how left wing ideas disseminated in our schools and other institutions.
His main point is that intellectuals believe that decisions on public policy should not be made by voters but rather by so-called “experts” when in fact knowledge on how to address problems is widely disseminated and requires decisions by the 99 percent of people who are not professional intellectuals.
Sowell will turn eighty this year. He looks great and we can only hope we have this American treasure around for a long time to speak with clarity about the problems America faces and the misguided policies of Obama, the Democrats and their intellectual allies at our universities.
Here is the interview in five segments. The comments before each segment only provide a few highlights. You will get much more out of listening to each segment and the whole interview.
Segment 1: “The Species of the Intellectuals” – Thomas Sowell on Obama’s call on Republicans to trust experts. “[laughing]…Talking to experts does make a difference. Many of the great disasters of our time have been committed by experts.”
Segment 2: “Intellectuals and Economics” – Sowell discusses among other things how government policy prevented the recovery after the 1929 stock market crash and created the Great Depression.
Segment 3: “Intellectuals and Vision” - The intellectuals’ vision that decisions should be transferred from the people to experts. “You can become President of the United States without contact to economic reality.” Comments on Obama’s decision to give al-Qaeda terrorists a jury trial when there is no basis for such a “right”.
Segment 4: “Intellectuals and War” Gun control: “In Britain they have made burglary a safe occupation.” The role of schools in disseminating the liberal agenda. The fallacy that an arms race will lead to war. The heroic roles of President Truman in containing the Soviet Union and President Reagan in ending the Cold War.
Segment 5: “Intellectuals and the Rest of Us” – Intellectuals sell their services by making alarming predictions like global warming. The revelations of Climategate.
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