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.
All too often when liberals cite statistics, they forget the statisticians' warning that correlation is not causation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that just because two events are correlated, it doesn't mean one causes the other.
In this quote, Thomas Sowell highlights a common mistake made by individuals, particularly liberals in this context, when interpreting statistics. He warns that correlation alone should not be mistaken for causation, thereby reminding us to critically assess the relationships between events or data points before concluding that one directly influences the other. This serves as a caution against oversimplification in the analysis of complex social issues.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about economic policy, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for careful analysis of data.
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
As the tree is fertilized by its own broken branches and fallen leaves, and grows out of its own decay, so men and nations are bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations.
Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison. I am near, too near for him to dream of me.
A country that relies on aid? Death is better than that. It stops you from achieving your potential, just as colonialism did.
We have to get out of this mindset that the rich will do the business and the poor will have the charity.
Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?
If you destroyed half the pharmaceutical production in the United States, we'd think it's a pretty serious problem. In fact, we'd probably go to war.