ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Thomas Sowell, a Chicago trained neoclassical economist. It analyzes his career, contributions and views. Thomas Sowell was born in 1930. He had his humble beginnings in North Carolina and Harlem and was raised in a fairly poor family. Sowell began his economic career as a labor economist with the United States Department of Labor in 1961. Sowell's interests and scholarly contributions are wide-ranging, from history and race relations to pure economics and photography. His views and many writings, although centered around social issues, are in the positivistic vein and are pragmatic in nature. Sowell is a positive economist. Sowell contends that people are different and that these differences have consequences, some of which are undeniable economic differences. Thomas Sowell has been in ardent opposition to affirmative action for many years. Affirmative action programs were designed not for the least qualified, but for the almost-as-qualified, shut-out, and under-represented minorities.
