Probably 1.5 stars to be honest. While it is somewhat thought-out, the glaring lack of true academic references along with the plethora of sweeping generalizations in a book that purports itself to be unbiased and data driven is impossible to ignore.

If you’re looking for a book on current economic systems and the way they work, which I thought this would be, this is not your book.

This is more of a political propaganda piece for hot topic issues.

It did stimulate some deeper consideration of the economic effects following political decisions, which is crucial to being a well rounded citizen, so it gets that right. However, I can’t help but feel like this book sits proudly half-read on the shelves of individuals who claim to have studied laissez-faire economics in depth but haven’t gone any further than a few PragerU “courses” on YouTube.

Probably not too much Sowell for me in the near future

Written by one of the most influential economists of the last 50 years, Sowell takes on colonialism, race, housing, economic development, government regulation and many more “hot” topics. His perspectives are valuable for any policy maker or voter to get a different view than the majoritarian one. A great read.

I’m not going to finish this because it’s nearly 20 years out of date and, therefore, a lot of what is being presented doesn’t show an accurate picture of life. On the plus side, the author does a great job at describing how economists think. On the negative side, it’s pretty clear that he has an agenda and thinks past stage one only for what he wants to happen. He doesn’t present much of a balanced case for anything that he doesn’t approve of. In so many instances, I was getting very confused because I was clearly able to see the contradictions in statements that the author either couldn’t or wouldn’t see. I quit once he started extolling the virtues of America’s private health care system. I don’t remember healthcare in 2003 very clearly, but I do know that the picture of healthcare in America today is not so rosy.

Every American voter should read this.

I came to read this book as a followup of his "Basic Economics". I was disappointed from the lack of his complete arguments. Many of them felt half way through. Nontheless, his views are sharp and classic liberalitarian view such as criticizing universal health care. It was refreshing to see such point of view living here in Canada.

Initially, I thought this book would be some sort of sequel to "Basic economics". In reality, there is considerable overlap between "Basic economics" and "Applied economics", as well as "Economic facts and fallacies". Those books address very similar issues, only from different angles. What is great about "Applied economics" is that it provides a very large number of concrete examples where "Basic economics" remained slightly more theoretical. "Applied economics" also includes much more history: analyses outlining the root causes of present phenomena, comparisons between the histories of different countries/groups of people etc. I highly recommend it.

“The feeling that the government should “do something” has seldom been based on a comparison of what actually happens when government does and when it does not “do something.”

Sensible economic musings which consider flow on effects.

5 stars for Thomas Sowell — a national treasure.

Plainspoken, interesting, and well-researched. This book has markedly influenced the way I think.

I would commend this book to everyone — especially younger folks. I reckon the conversations in our public square would be considerably more profitable if we were all better informed by Thomas Sowell's writings. If we could all learn the skill and discipline of thinking beyond stage one.

"With nations, as with individuals, not all have had the same opportunities and not all have taken equal advantages of what opportunities they did have."

I remember reading several articles/essays/excerpts from Thomas Sowell in undergrad. He has the great ability of making economics accessible though his clear writing style and simple presentation of ideas. However, in this particular book, it was just that - the simplicity - that bothered me.

The whole premise of the book is that we should "think beyond stage one" and consider long-term effects of policies and practices. Sowell describes the (usually unintended) negative effects of certain policies such as insurance, government-run health care, and anti-discrimination laws. Unarguably, there have been downsides to all of these. People abuse health care and use it differently when they are not the ones directly paying for it. As mentioned by a friend last week, instead of expanding female sports some colleges eliminated certain male sports as a result of Title IX.

So, while Sowell was able to shed light on these issues, he writes from an extreme laissez-faire perspective and the one-sidedness of the arguments often seem to simple. Rarely (in this book) does he expand discussions of cost and benefits beyond monetary to include health, social capital, fulfillment, etc. Nor does he always elaborate on the full issue.

For instance, on the discussion of the effects of land use on housing prices, he mentions a very limited application of land use regulation that is often touted in the realm of planning as ineffective. I agree with Sowell in that exclusionary land use policies or residential zoning that requires half acre lots is counterproductive. However, he doesn't mention land use policies that attempt to integrate transportation with land use, create mixed-use communities, and provide certainty to developers. His aversion to open space regulations does not take into account the costs and benefits of the results either. While housing is limited in NYC, could you imagine NYC without Central Park? Privately owned public spaces have been produced in a variety of ways, through mandates and incentives. Rather than blasting all of these initiatives, why not compare? Sowell has written numerous books and articles, so perhaps he has in other writings.

I will definitely continue to read Sowell, but I think it would be unwise to only read from this perspective.

brilliant book

I found it to be good book in economic

Legitimate and sound info. But poorly written, cited and structured. Hawking said in one of his physics books that equations are said to trend a books popularity downward with each one, but an economics book with no charts, graphs, or math formula that are generally easy to follow to help back up cherry picked facts? I agree with the authors world perspective, but this reeked of a biased old man drunk in the corner of the bar spitting off memorized soundbites that are true, but not necessity right or the whole picture, that even his well-tipped bartender has heard enough of. I would've liked to see a book with the aforementioned, but arguing more respectful counterpoints. I love capitalism, but at the end of the day it's still just the "least-bad" way of managing the world. A History of Future Cities was a much better book at this and it wasn't even an economics book.