Some of my favorite people read and enjoy Sowell.
He generally makes poor arguments, however, which is why he's affiliated with the Hoover.
On #1. Yes, at the margins. So?
On #2. Affirmative action is designed to redress institutional racism, and not to redress socio-economic inequality. Also, since he doesn't believe in redressing socioeconomic inequality (read his other "works"), this is a disingenuous claim for him to have made.
On #3. Inherited wealth, inherited benefits of being white, etc - all of the things that he
worships, in fact - have the same effect (even if we stipulate that it is in fact true that AA causes people to be lax), but more broadly in society.
On #4. This may be true. So? He sure does talk a lot about groups, doesn't he, for a rugged individualist conservative thinker. I would have thought that since he imagines that the psychic costs of AA are so great to the member of the preferred group, he would be
very surprised that they would still somehow choose to enrol at Harvard, Princeton or Yale. And yet they do. Over and over again. Not learning their lesson, they graduate from Yale Law and take their place at Cravath. Very, very puzzling.
Is this what passes for reading, nowadays? Sowell's work is trash. Think will reading it and you'll discover it for yourself. Alternatively, skip the thinking part and take my word for it.
