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The Quest for Cosmic Justice By Thomas Sowell. NewYork, NY:The Free Press, 214 pages, $25.00 (cloth)
It is only fair that I start this review by pointing out that Thomas Sowell and I have been friends and colleagues for over thirty years. Our friendship began in 1969 when he accepted a one-year visiting professor appointment in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles while I was a graduate student. In 1971, just as I was leaving UCLA, Dr. Sowell accepted a full-time associate professor appointment.
During this thirty year period, I have not encountered anyone as quick and as insightful as he has been in his voluminous publications that include more than twenty-five books. What can be downright disturbing, at least to me, about reading Sowell's scholarly works is being constantly bombarded with the thought: "That's simple; why didn't I think of that in that fashion?" The insightfulness Sowell brings to a subject, along with his ability to cut to the kernel of an issue, is in abundant supply in The Quest for Cosmic Justice. The main section of the book focuses on what Sowell describes as cosmic justice. There are three other sections, mainly essays that are variations on the theme of cosmic justice.
Scarcely a news day passes by without some appeal for"justice" or "equality" It might be "affordable" housing and health care insurance, sex and race equality, a level playing field for international trade or the most recent addition, "protecting America's children." But Sowell says, "Unlike God at the dawn of creation, we can't simply say, `Let there be equality!' or `Let there be justice!' We must begin with the universe that we were born into and weigh the costs of making any specific change in it to achieve a specific end." Weighing the full costs of action is an idea either alien or irrelevant or possibly an anathema to those in pursuit of cosmic justice. Weighing costs of actions is a theme that runs throughout the book.
An event in the nation's capital demonstrates Sowell's argument. If one calls to order a pizza delivery from Domino's, and if he lives in certain neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., the pizza will be delivered but not to the door. The...