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.
Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the tendency to prioritize appealing ideas over practical, proven solutions in societal changes.
Thomas Sowell's quote reflects on the tendency of society, particularly in the Western world, to favor ideas that are conceptually attractive over those that have demonstrably worked in the past. It suggests that this shift can lead to detrimental outcomes as society moves away from time-tested practices in favor of trends and appealing concepts, potentially undermining stability and effectiveness.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social policies, one might use this quote to emphasize the potential pitfalls of abandoning effective strategies for untested ideas.
More from Thomas Sowell
All quotes βBlacks 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.
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.
You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
If people knew the story of their lives, how many would then elect to live them?
The law of violence is not a law, but a simple fact which can only be a law when it does not meet with protest and opposition. It is like the cold, darkness and weight, which people had to put up with until recently when warmth, illumination and leverage were discovered.
Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.
It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.
See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.
Thatβs the thing with the young these days, isnβt it? They watch too many happy endings. Everything has to be wrapped up, with a smile and a tear and a wave. Everyone has learned, found love, seen the error of their ways, discovered the joys of monogamy, or fatherhood, or filial duty, or life itself. In my day, people got shot at the end of films, after learning only that life is hollow, dismal, brutish, and short.