Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens.
Thomas SowellRead
Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions - and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the importance of weighing costs and benefits in decision-making, contrasting business practices with government decision-making.
Thomas Sowell's quote emphasizes a practical approach to decision-making that is prevalent in both personal and business contexts, where individuals and organizations assess the benefits of an action against its costs. He critiques the government for often disregarding this rational evaluation, suggesting that it may prioritize benefits without adequately considering the associated costs, which can lead to flawed policies and inefficiencies.
Themes
Decision-MakingCostsBenefitsBusinessGovernment
In practice
Example use cases
In a business meeting discussing a new project, one might quote Sowell to emphasize the importance of cost-benefit analysis.
More from Thomas Sowell
All quotes →Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks.
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One of the reasons for conspiracy theories is an assumption that people in high places always know what they are doing. When they do something that makes no sense, devious reasons are imagined by conspiracy theorists, when in fact it may be due to plain old ignorance and incompetence.
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You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.
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The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority that those beliefs give them.
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Why is history important? Without history, many people have no idea how many of today's half-baked ideas have been tried, again and again - and have repeatedly led to disaster. Most of these ideas are not new. They are just being recycled with re-treaded rhetoric.
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