Wealth, Poverty, and Politics

Recorded on September 18, 2015
Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell discusses poverty around the world and in the United States. Poverty in America, he says, compared to the rest of the world, is not severe. Many poor people in poverty in the United States have one or two cars, central heating, and cell phones. The real problem for the poor is the destruction of the family, which Sowell argues dramatically increased once welfare policies were introduced in the 1960s.

[tintinhickey]

Poverty doesn't cause broken homes, rather broken homes cause poverty.

[CottonCube]

I'm glad Dr. Sowell is looking healthy and animated despite being 85 years old. Hopefully his brilliance won't be hindered by age anytime soon.

[feroxlara]

One of the greatest of men that has ever walked on this earth.

[bemore]

So sad that I'm 35 yo and only now finding out about this guy. So many principles that I should have known about.

[FrancisRoyCA]

Robinson is such an excellent interviewer. I love his format. He's extremely well structured, but what really makes him stand out is that it's evident that he's read the books, and has taken the time to think about them to formulate excellent questions.

[UTNatlChamps]

Dr. Sowell is not only one of the smartest men on the topics of race, economics, the family, but one of the wisest public intellectuals as well. Is he politically incorrect? Absolutely. Is he tough on the President? Most definitely. In the eyes of many on the Left, that precludes them from covering his very intelligent musings in anything other than a very biased manner.

This man is one of the greatest intellectual assets this great nation is blessed to have. Many young individuals could learn a whole lot from this man. I know I have and have become the better for it.

[projectcontractors]

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education." ~ Mark Twain

[Khorne_on_the_Kob]

"You cannot measure opportunity by outcomes" quote of the century right there, this guy is awesome

[intimissimi]

I'm half german/ half turkish and I love thomas sowell! just imagine him being your uncle or grandfather... I could listen to him for hours
greetings from mainz, germany

[CaptCutler]

Thomas Sowell is a damn national treasure that will be forgotten as fast as he's been dismissed. Watching a man like this proliferate the most common of all senses in an easy to understand form, and be unheard by the people who need to hear it most, is symbolic of the fall of America.

[l]

And today, you have to learn English to listen and read the great Thomas Sowell. I'm glad I

[RustyHeels]

I swear you can sit and watch these videos for a couple of weeks and learn a lot more than what children are being taught at liberal arts universities these days.

[daviddavidson]

I really want to thank these two men. Before discovering Uncommon Knowledge I was just your run-of-the-mill, anti-American liberal Brit (we aren't exposed to many conservative voices over here across the pond). Uncommon Knowledge and Thomas Sowell introduced me to the civil, thoughtful, intellectual side of conservatism (which I now realize is at its heart) and introduced me to other thinkers and writers on the right which I would otherwise never have heard about. It completely changed my worldview. Thank you, keep up the good work, and God bless America.

[cooliotopnotch]

Thomas Sowell should have been the first black president.

[howardking]

Thomas is a genius! My city cousins were quick to remind me I was poor when they came to visit our little dairy farm. But the only thing they knew anything about was playing with a ball. I had almost unlimited resources to learn new things. All I needed was curiosity. Our little city dump was a treasure of possibilities. We learned the basics of human out of necessity. One of our major advantages was that no one wanted outside our community wanted anything to do with us. Then the government tried to save us—it was down hill from there on. They built a straighter, wider highway through our little town, scraped away our city dump, tore down our line fences, regulated our little dairy farms, etc., etc. The town shut down so we had to drive to the ‘big’ towns for everything. Without line fences, the small farms merged into huge farms where huge machinery was required so kids no longer could participate safely and were replaced by transients so they no longer learned to drive as soon as they were strong enough to reach and push the clutch or learn about the soil or care of livestock. The government defined the poverty level and is now trying to define ‘happiness’. No thanks—how can miserable people who have never known real happiness define happiness when real people don’t all want to ‘play ball’?

[BluesHarpJammin]

This is why I love Thomas Sowell and why he's one of my favorite non-fiction authors. He writes for the common-sense layperson, and his combination of facts, logic and common sense just blows the liberal worldview out of the water. Reading one book by Thomas Sowell makes you at least 3 times smarter than the average liberal. I've read dozens of his books over the years.

[MusclesAreMagic]

Can't stop watching these interviews with Sowell, just phenomenal conversation. Thank you for sharing this knowledge

[reptilia]

Thomas Sowell's books should be required reading for all home-educated children. The man is a peripatetic education and a great teacher for our youth.

[maggiealbritton]

Wise man, that Thomas Sowell! ❤️. Common sense is the remedy to most of America’s problems!

[jordanpoole]

Dr. Sowell and Dr. Friedman forever changed the world. Listening to their comparative analysis is something every young scholar should do.