… is from page 399 of The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011):
People who pride themselves on their “complexity” and deride others for being “simplistic” should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complicated is evading the truth.
DBx: Indeed. And no attempted evasion of the truth is more complicated than protectionism. People dream up all sorts of superficially clever reasons why, if government obstructs its citizens’ access to goods and services, it thereby eases its citizens’ access to good and services. This protectionist move is the intellectual equivalent of describing those conditions that, were these to occur, a person who leaps without a parachute from the roof of a skyscraper will enjoy the thrill of the fall without suffering the slightest injury.
