Thomas Sowell on Hunter College High School

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/08/thomas-sowell-on-hunter-college-high-school

Thomas Sowell has a new column about the debate over admissions to Hunter College High School in New York:

actual performance-- whether in schools, on the job or elsewhere-- involves far more than native intelligence. Wasted intelligence does nothing for an individual or society.

The reason a surgeon can operate on your heart, while someone of equal intelligence who is not a surgeon cannot, is because of what different people actually did with their intelligence. That has always varied, not only from individual to individual but from group to group-- and not only in this country, but in countries around the world and across the centuries of human history.

One of the biggest fallacies of our time is the notion that, if all groups are not proportionally represented in institutions, professions or income levels, that shows something wrong with society. The very possibility that people make their own choices, and that those choices have consequences-- for themselves and for others-- is ignored. Society is the universal scapegoat.

Thanks to FutureOfCapitalism reader-participant-community member-watchdog-content co-creator R. for sending the link.

by Editor  |  Aug 10, 2010 at 9:57 am Related Topics:  Education, Income Inequality, Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list