I have been reading this book that has some interesting fallacies that people often bring up in arguments, then it uses facts o prove why and how they are wrong. The books name is economic facts and fallacies by Thomas Sowell.
One thing that I learned was that fallacies have a really strong hold on people. When someone makes someone actually think those fallacies are true wether that be for political benefit or personal belief, the other person actually starts to take it really seriously. Fallacies spread when someone starts believing in one and spreads the word as learning something new! But the meaning of fallacies is widely misunderstood. In the book it states “ Fallacies are not simply crazy ideas. They are usually both plausible and logical- but with something missing.
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Now here are some examples of some fallacies proven wrong with facts:
Fallaci: The Zero-Sum Fallacy
Fact: This fallacy implicates that in a trade something is gained by someone and lost by someone else. But that is not how trading works. If this case were true then the person trading would not trade anything if he is not also benefiting. The economy works so when I give someone Money for exchange of goods we both profit, the other guy gets money to spend and I get the product that will help me. Then this money circulates in the economy as he spends it on something then the money gets spent again till the money comes back to me so I can spend it again for an exchange of goods. This cycle repeats its self.
Fallaci: The fallacy of composting
Fact: This fallacy states that what is true for one is true for all. This is false though because many politicians use this rule in some relief bills. But this never works. Some groups go through different things than others. People also say that government spending s essential for making jobs and helping the economy. But this can be proven wrong! If I were to keep the extra taxes I payed the government I can spend that money. When if spend that money I give that to a big or small business, helping them pay their employees and debt. Then when they have more Monet at the end of the year because of me spending more they can get new jobs to be more efficient, With that I also helped the economy and provided many businesses with my business. So all that extra money people have spent can also be beneficial to the economy, as well as helping me get the goods I want for my personal use.
Fallaci: Overpopulation is a cause of poverty
Fact: This is false! Before subways and transportation in the world people had to be really close to their jobs (at a walking distance) So they would overpopulate the area with the most jobs. Then after cars and underground railroads and subways were made people started to spread out and colonize more places outside of cities. Now you may ask “how does this apply to this.” Well actually this is the main reason. When people don’t have enough Money to spend on transportation they have no choice but to live near work. In third world countries many people don’t have money to spend on transportation causing overpopulation. So in other words “Poverty Is The Cause Of Overpopulation.”
Fallaci: Mixing poor families in a rich neighbor hood can be benefaction to them as rich families can rub off on them.
Facts: Though this claim would make sense this claim has been proven wring with actual experiments done. A study in the book states “in river dale a school once boasting a top academics reputation has seen its achievements drop refuting the idea that shipping poor families to good schools inn suburbs will cause an education to rub off.” This could also effect the reputation of the neighbor hood as the families might not be able to pay rent in time which will leave the banks hesitant to lend money to families in that neighbor hood. Another experiment in the book lists this “after hurricane Katrina in 2005 more than 100,000 people fled the area tp Houston. The people who fled had half the house hold income than existing Houston residents, in the city also kids did less well than existing residents and also had a crime rate 4 Times of Houston. Their move was then followed by a sharp rate of increase in crime rate specially murder, so this proves that moving people to a new place does not change their behavior.”
So lets recap, we learned the zero sum fallacy, fallacy of composting, overpopulation is a cause of poverty, and mixing poor families in rich neighbor hoods does not always have the expected effect.
