“A high IQ and low information can be a very dangerous combination, as a basis for preempting other people's decisions-especially when this preemption takes place in circumstances where there is no price for surrogate decision-makers to pay for being wrong.” – Social Justice Fallacies
In 1980, the Democrat Party crafted a special category of delegates beholden to the political apparatus called Superdelegates. These superdelegates represent establishment personnel including elected officials, party leaders, and lobbyists. Their job, in part, is to steer the election towards an acceptable candidate and rid the process of outsiders and unwelcome competition. In 2016, these swampy politicos did just that, when they successfully ousted Bernie Sanders by artificially increasing Hillary Clinton’s delegate count to make it seem they were running neck and neck, despite Sanders' overwhelming lead in the early states’ caucuses and primaries. By overriding the public's wishes, they believe their superior knowledge will produce the best candidate for the party. Ironically intervening, to protect democracy from democracy.
In Thomas Sowell’s 2023 book, “Social Justice Fallacies”, Sowell describes how the ruling class have been spectacularly wrong despite their expert knowledge, citing the war on poverty, rent control, minimum wage laws, affirmative action, and more. While knowledge can be acquired in the halls of academia, it also resides in the collective experiences of citizens across the globe. As Sowell reveals, when decisions are made by experts over individuals, the cumulative consequences of their mistakes make society less free and less prosperous.
In their never-ending quest to make the masses equal, Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) neglect to consider the different advantages and disadvantages resulting from a plurality of factors. What is repeatedly described as discrimination is often nothing more than unequal development caused by everything from family structure, geography, and different skills and interests. A disproportionate representation of races and ethnicities occurs when people are hired based on their acquired capabilities and not their undeveloped potential.
Sowell goes on to describe how firstborn and only children get significantly more attention than subsequent siblings in two-parent homes while children of professionals hear more words and have access to more books, creating a developmental gap from those who don’t. Meanwhile, children residing in war-torn countries and violent neighborhoods often result in their own arrested development. Yet, despite claims of racism and bias, in every analysis, black two-parent families outearn all single families, including whites. Protestations of white privilege and white supremacy are further disproven by Asian excellence, surpassing whites in every possible comparison while Appalachians live in crippling poverty, without ever experiencing any brush with racism.
Studies suggest that race, gender, and sexuality are not the culprits of most disparities. Blacks may excel in sports, while Asians outperform in education and Hispanics in agriculture and construction. Men tend to outnumber women in the STEM fields, as women who become mothers choose jobs with more flexibility for the raising of children. These reciprocal inequalities reveal that where a group excels in one area, due to intelligence, physical prowess, and interest, they may not in another.
The Social Justice plan calls for governments to meddle in the decisions of citizens to create their perfect idea of equality through the redistribution of wealth and policies they believe will create equity. However, desirability for a particular outcome does not mean it is practical to do so. Central planning of the economy through minimum wage and rent control policy results in shortages like unemployment and homelessness, while increases in taxes create unwanted surpluses and the wasting of resources in areas of agriculture and government make-work. Taxing the rich often leads to less tax receipts as the wealthy change their behavior and move money to more tax-advantaged vehicles.
The arrogance of those who elevate special knowledge received at a university or college, over the on-the-ground knowledge of the masses, neglect to acknowledge that people tend to know what is best for them at any given moment since circumstances and preferences can change in an instant. While individuals pay the price for their own bad choices, surrogate decision-makers ill-informed tinkering in the affairs of others never results in consequences for them as they repeatedly make everyone worse off by applying the wrong cure to the wrong disease.
It is folly for an elite class to think they can design society to their liking. Nor is there any circumstance where unfairness in life can be redistributed to the disadvantaged without significant damage to society. At the age of 93, Sowell’s warnings are as relevant today as they were when he first sounded the alarm decades ago.
コメント