3bc0c09b_30_of_130___sorted_by__review___review
[0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One [author] author Sowell, Thomas [isbn] isbn 0465081436 [isbn13] isbn13 9780465081431 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 256 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.14 [num ratings] num ratings 1,024 [date pub] date pub Nov 12, 2003 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Nov 13, 2003 [rating] Lucas's rating 2 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 0 [votes] votes 0 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started Jul 19, 2010 [date read] date read Jul 20, 2010 [date added] date added Jul 19, 2010 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [format] format Hardcover [29] actions view [review] 
review After chapter upon chapter telling of the counter-productiveness of government intervention in markets, the immigration section is entirely out of pla After chapter upon chapter telling of the counter-productiveness of government intervention in markets, the immigration section is entirely out of place. Apparently there's nothing wrong with heavy regulation and central planning in the case of workers wanting to cross borders. The lack of an appropriately weighty explanation for the inconsistency with the rest of the book casts everything else into doubt. Instead of a coherent and principled set of arguments, all the rest could be cherry picked statistics and anecdotes. I expected 'thinking beyond stage one' to be about something grand where stage one was the first n-hundred years after the invention of something, but it just means longer term thinking. I got tired of hearing about how voters or elected representatives (Sowell always uses the more pejorative term 'politicians') should have been thinking beyond stage 1 when some law eventually had the opposite effect of intended. He could have dropped the subtitle and used a few other phrases to say the same thing, or better yet let the reader make that conclusion. Lots of explanations for the status quo, but where Sowell is critical there aren't any suggestions for how to fix things. It's either not broken and trying to fix it will make it worse, or it's just broken- where frequently Sowell implies that democracy itself that is broken. Over-use of the word 'particular', usually around bland generalizations with very little content- it wouldn't be that hard to substitute some real details. There isn't any big picture analysis to show the relative economic importance of say driving after age 75 vs. owners of dangerous dogs not paying proportionally vs. government funded health care, it's all put on equal terms. ...more
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