How easy it is to scare people politically
By Gary Sibio
@garysibi (702)
Chicago, Illinois
August 6, 2019 8:49pm CST
@ThomasSowell: One of the scariest things about our times is how easy it is to scare people and start a political stampede. There are people who could be upset if they were told that half of all Americans earn less than the median income—though of course that is the way median income is defined
https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/1158784878453940224
2 people like this
3 responses
@profree2019 (1208)
• Barquisimeto, Venezuela
7 Aug 19
It would be interesting to know what you call a political stampede. Would you help me?
@garysibi (702)
• Chicago, Illinois
7 Aug 19
I think you can figure out what Sowell was talking about without any help from me.
@profree2019 (1208)
• Barquisimeto, Venezuela
7 Aug 19
@garysibi Hello friend, maybe it's the translation, but what I wanted to say is that I don't understand that of "political stampede" and that you could help me by explaining what it is.
@garysibi (702)
• Chicago, Illinois
7 Aug 19
@profree2019 OH, I'm sorry. I did misunderstand you.
The word stampede in this context is used to refer to anything from loud, irrational arguing to rioting.
1 person likes this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
7 Aug 19
Actually that isn’t mathematically the way that works.
If someone makes 1 million dollars, and the Median income for the count is 80,000 thousand it means that for every person making a million they represent 12 people.
Ie if there are 350 million people and there are 40 million people making a million a year, it means that there are 310 million people below the median income.
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
7 Aug 19
@garysibi I was actually agreeing with you - law of large numbers works in his favor.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
7 Aug 19
It's a good point, although I think it applies more to conditions in the United States than in most other countries. American politics seems to have entirely dismissed the "middle way" in politics - you have to be either wholly on one side or the other. That makes reasoned debate almost impossible, whatever the point at issue.
I had a good example of this just now on another site. I had the temerity to make a point about climate change, which was that well qualified and politically independent experts should be given a fair hearing. One response I got was that I was "an enemy of the United States". This surely bears out Mr Sowell's point pretty well.
@garysibi (702)
• Chicago, Illinois
7 Aug 19
Sowell was talking about the USA but I think you might be giving non-Americans a bit too much credit. I've seen video of the British Parliament and they can be just as stubborn as our Congress. I got the feeling that, during the Brexit talks, there wasn't much tolerance of the other guy's opinion.
And then there's Taiwan where there legislature often breaks out in fistfights.
