Kerby Anderson

Thomas Sowell wrote about what he thinks is the dumbest idea in politics. Now when you are talking about politics and public policy, there are lots of dumb ideas but this one might be top of the list.

He thinks that the most stupid idea you can find in politics is “the assumption that people would be evenly or randomly distributed in incomes, institutions, occupations, or awards.” He argues that this assumption is the basis for so many political crusades and personal careers as grievance mongers.

What set him off were a number of articles about the fact that females are underrepresented among the highest rated chess players and how women and minorities are under-represented in high tech jobs in Silicon Valley. Are girls who want to play chess finding doors slammed in their face? Are women and minorities who want degrees in computer science being prevented from pursuing that career? There is no evidence of that.

When you get into racial and ethnic differences, there is where this false assumption in the grievance industry really shows up. Differences in outcomes are just naturally assumed to be due to racism or discrimination of some type. Thomas Sowell points out that something as simple as age differences might explain the different economic circumstances.

For example, if every 20-year-old Puerto Rican in America had an identical income of every Japanese American (and identical incomes at every other age), the Japanese Americans as a group would still have a higher average income than Puerto Ricans in the U.S. Why? The median age of Japanese Americans is more than 20 years older. They have more work experience so they have higher incomes.

Perhaps you can now see why Thomas Sowell thinks this assumption about equality is a dumb idea. When you factor in relevant criteria and also recognize people have different gifts and talents, you begin to find reasons why there are economic differences in society.