Fantastic. highly recommend.

This book provides a fantastic critic on many long standing issues.
Sowell is libertarian. I’d especially recommend this book to people who are more socialist by leaning as it gives a very cogent argument for libertarianism which you may not have been exposed to.

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2 people found this helpful

Another great Sowell book

Another great Sowell book although there is a lot of overlap between this and Sowell's Basic Economics.

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4 people found this helpful

Essential listening

Although this book is more than a decade old it’s still relevant to our current times.

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logical simple to follow...

this book breaks down the problem of making decisions based on preconceived notions without prior proper investigation necessary in many important matters in our society..

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2 people found this helpful

Sentiment is good but conclusions are shaky

The sentiment that statistics should be properly dissected with terms being well defined to make sure what is being represented is true is good. I think it's misapplied slightly. 3rd party observers are what researchers are. While that point is caveated, it is important to state that 3rd party observers can have a perspective which is not tainted by the closeness to a problem/situation. Overall still good for broadening your thinking

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The importance of reading data in the right way

“Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics!”
The importance of digging deeper into any assertions and statistics, is made clear, in this very important and impressive book.
Whether you’re on the Left or on the Right; there are lessons that you can learn from this.

Go back and analyse some of your personal assertions and beliefs; whether on immigration, man-made climate-change or racism …

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1 person found this helpful

Fantastic

Fantastic listen which really expands on core economic concepts, using real world examples in laymans terms. Narrator did a great job.

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Must listen!

Gives a good insight into why #BLM is a massive marxist con. Well worth paying attention.

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5 people found this helpful

Some good points but clearly biased

Most of the information is presented with relevant studies cited but there is an implicit assumption that everything is a commodity and that productivity and profit takes precedent at all costs. A convincing argument is presented for the gender pay gap issue citing there is more than just saying x% of this and y% of that, but then there is a mention of disproportionate proportion of liberal minds in academia as faculty without any analysis like what was done with the pay gap issue. An unbiased analysis, in my view, would dive deep into this issue like how the author talks about the gender pay gap, since for all we know, it is possible that liberal minded people prefer to forgo higher salaries and teach the next generation due to their sense of wanting to help others more compared to conservative minded people who would choose industry where there is better pay on average

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3 people found this helpful

Very basic, lacking depth

This is not even Economics 101, but something of a precursor to a primer. Although it covers a lot of ground, there are some significant errors of fact in it, and it makes assertions that are apparently unsubstantiated.* However it does serve a purpose as a useful beginning place to start even from the point of "how not to view economics" so not totally without grounding and it also allows some people to step outside of what may be an echo chamber. This book is not irredeemable, and it does make some notable points that perhaps not every student of economics considers - but it provides few definitive answers and most of the assertions made can be readily refuted by other sources.

I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this but if you can find it in a sale or discounted version, it's worth adding to your collection but as a standalone "everything about economics" it will leave the listener very badly misinformed and lacking in knowledge.

*note that there are very few references in the audio version but this may not be so in the text version

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