Thomas sowell the vision of the anointed pdf

Notable & Quotable: Thomas Sowell on 'Greed'

Why is the term applied almost exclusively to those who want to keep what they've earned? Wall Street Journal Sept. 17, 2014

From economist Thomas Sowell's "The Vision of the Anointed" (1995):

Among the many other questions raised by the nebulous concept of "greed" is why it is a term

applied almost exclusively to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they have already

earned—never to those wanting to take other people's money in taxes or to those wishing to live on

the largess dispensed from such taxation. No amount of taxation is ever described by the anointed as

"greed" on the part of government or the clientele of government. . . .

Families who wish to be independent financially and to make their own decisions about their lives

are of little interest or use to those who are seeking to impose their superior wisdom and virtue on

other people. Earning their own money makes these families unlikely candidates for third-party

direction and wishing to retain what they have earned threatens to deprive the anointed of the money

needed to distribute as largess to others who would thus become subject to their direction. In these

circumstances, it is understandable why the desire to increase and retain one's own earnings should

be characterized negatively as "greed," while wishing to live at the expense of others is not.

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