Discrimination and Disparities

An enlarged edition of Thomas Sowell's brilliant examination of the origins of economic disparities Economic and other outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups, and nations. Many explanations have been offered for the differences. Some believe that those with less fortunate outcomes are victims of genetics. Others believe that those who are less fortunate are victims of the more fortunate. Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. This revised and enlarged edition also analyzes the human consequences of the prevailing social vision of these disparities and the policies based on that vision--from educational disasters to widespread crime and violence. In This New, Revised And Enlarged Edition, Discrimination And Disparities Goes Beyond Its Analysis--in The First Edition--of The Sources Of Disparities And The Different Kinds Of Discrimination. It Deals With Undeniable Fact Of Gross Disparities In Opportunity, Without Succumbing To The 'social Justice' Vision Of Our Time--a Vision With Demonstrably False Assumptions, And Solutions That May Not Even Be Possible, In Any Comprehensive And Sustainable Sense. Instead, Some More Modest But Feasible Options Are Examined.--dust Jacket. Disparities And Prerequisites -- Discrimination: Meanings And Costs -- Sorting And Unsorting People -- The World Of Numbers -- The World Of Words -- Social Visions And Human Consequences -- Facts, Assumptions And Goals. Thomas Sowell. Originally Published In Hardcover And Ebook By Basic Books In March 2018--title Page Verso. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 229-282) And Index. "Economic and other outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups, and nations. Many explanations have been offered for the differences. Some believe that those with less fortunate outcomes are victims of genetics. Others believe that those who are less fortunate are victims of the more fortunate. Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. This revised and enlarged edition also analyzes the human consequences of the prevailing social vision of these disparities and the policies based on that vision-from educational disasters to widespread crime and violence"--Publisher's website "Challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, explotitation or genetics. It offers its own new analysis, based on an entirely different approach--and backed up with empirical evidence from around the world. The point is not to recommend some particular policy "fix", but to clarify why so many policy fixes have turned out to be counterproductive, and to expose some seemingly invincible fallacies behind many of those conterproductive policies"--Jacket flap.