Facts and Fallacies

Being a man who loves facts, Thomas Sowell demolishes many fallacies in his book Economic Facts and Fallacies. Writing in his plainspoken, clear style, he notes, "Voluntary economic transactions take place because both parties believe they are better off making these transactions than not making them. Then, government gets involved, in the interest of helping one side, causing fewer transactions and causing both original parties to become worse off in some respect."

The "chess-pieces fallacy" comes into play when social experimenters think they can arrange different human beings around just like a hand arranges different pieces on a chess board. Of course, the fallacy here is that, as Sowell writes, "human beings have their own individual preferences, plans, values and wills, all of which can conflict with and even thwart the goals of social experimenters."

The "open-ended fallacy" disregards the fundamental fact that "resources are inherently limited and have alternative uses." Obama wants healthcare reform now. What resources will be affected? If more money is spent on healthcare, will less money be spent on defense? More importantly, who is going to be asking these questions?

Sowell writes about many urban fallacies. One is that highly crowded cities are a sign of "overpopulation." In the United States, "less than five percent of the land area is developed, and forests alone cover six times as much land as all the cities and towns in the country put together." Now, though, because of the introduction and spread of subways, commuter trains, buses and automobiles, ordinary people can live much farther from an urban center today than the elite could in the past.

Our farm is one hour away from anything, or so it seems. But my Chevy Metro still gets over 50 miles per gallon, I can listen to talk radio while driving one hour to work, and the Colorado scenery aint too shabby, so why not live on a farm, where my wife can happily pursue her life-long dreams of raising children and animals?