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Welcome to Keith and I don't 
tread on anyone in the 

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Libertarian Institute. 
This is a Thanksgiving message 

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from Thomas Sowell. 
Thanksgiving and Fairness. 

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There was a time when 
Thanksgiving meant an occasion 

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for counting our blessings. 
But now that we have so many 

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blessings that previous 
generations could hardly have 

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dreamed about, we take them all 
for granted and are much more 

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likely to count our grievances 
and the ways in which others 

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have been unfair to us. 
Everybody is for fairness 

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because we all use the same word
to mean very different things. 

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Most of us think you have been 
treated fairly when you have 

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been treated the same as 
everyone else, subjected to the 

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same rules, and judged by the 
same standards. 

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But some think that you have 
been treated fairly only if you 

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have had the same chances as 
everyone else. 

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These are very different and 
completely incompatible notions.

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When the rules of basketball 
treat me the same as they treat 

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Michael Jordan, that does not 
mean that we have equal chances 

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of success. 
In fact, that virtually 

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guarantees that I have no 
chance. 

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People on opposite sides of 
political and legal issues often

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talk right past each other 
because they are using the same 

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word to mean totally different 
and mutually contradictory 

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things. 
When statistics are flung around

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on the disparities, often called
inequities, between groups, the 

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implication is that such 
statistical differences could 

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not exist without unfair 
treatment. 

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It's always selective. 
When they do this, they seldom, 

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if ever discuss the fact that 
95.5% of people killed by the 

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police are men. 
They never mentioned that men 

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are more likely to be in prison.
Men are much more likely to get 

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the death penalty than women 
are. 

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This is because men have higher 
levels of testosterone and men 

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are more violent. 
Younger people are more likely 

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to get killed by the police than
older people because the cops 

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are so ageist. 
No, because younger men tend to 

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be the more violent demographic.
They also never mentioned the 

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fact that Asians tend to outer 
and whites along with Indian 

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Americans, Taiwanese Americans, 
Japanese Americans. 

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You can always go down the list 
and look at the disparities that

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they're not mentioning. 
When it comes to disparities, 

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how about the fact that one 
organization, the federal 

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government, gets $6.27 trillion 
a year to spend and they still 

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managed to run a deficit? 
What other company even comes 

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close to spending that much 
money? 

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Even in situations where there 
is a total absence of evidence 

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for this unfair treatment, that 
scarcely causes a pause. 

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If there is no evidence, then 
there must be covert 

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discrimination, a glass ceiling,
or some other elusive and 

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sinister influence that you 
cannot substantiate. 

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This kind of circular reasoning 
says, in effect, heads I win, 

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tails you lose. 
Politically, there are few ideas

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more potent than the notion that
all your problems are caused by 

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other people and their 
unfairness to you. 

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That notion was the royal Rd. to
unbridled power for Hitler, 

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Lenin, Mao, and Pol Pot. 
Which is to say, millions of 

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human beings paid with their 
lives for believing it. 

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The unfairness that these 
demagogues talked about was not 

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a myth. 
Nothing is easier than finding 

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examples of unfair treatment 
among human beings. 

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The fatal misstep is in assuming
that such unfairness can be 

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presumed wherever results are 
unequal. 

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For the truly clever, unfairness
is simply defined as anything 

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producing unequal results or 
unequal prospects. 

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So the fact that government 
politicians have an unequal 

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amount of power with regard to 
the rest of the citizenry, you'd

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think this inequality would get 
a little more attention when it 

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comes to the social justice 
advocates to those with this 

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mindset. 
If individual's life chances are

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unequal, then that is unfair. 
This might be an interesting 

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argument if you are filing a 
class action lawsuit against 

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God, but it is idiocy when 
trying to hold any given human 

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being responsible for a whole 
Galaxy of complex interactions 

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beyond the control of anyone 
made of flesh and blood. 

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When we confuse the vagaries of 
fate with the sins of man and 

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look for leaders to redress this
unfairness, we are setting 

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ourselves up to become dupes of 
those who know how to arouse 

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emotions and promise the 
impossible. 

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The lesson is written in blood 
across the history of the 20th 

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century. 
Any serious study of geography 

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alone would show that utter 
unrealism of expecting people 

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whose histories and cultures 
evolved in very different 

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physical settings to have the 
same skills and experiences. 

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How could the peoples living in 
the Himalayas have developed the

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same sea farming skills as 
people living in in the Greek 

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islands? 
How could the Eskimos have 

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learned to grow pineapples? 
These are just some of the more 

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obvious geographic sources of 
unequal results. 

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And geography is just one of 
many influences on our ability 

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to create wealth or do the 
thousands of things which 

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influence our life chances. 
This is why Thomas Soul's work 

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is so empowering. 
He really takes it away. 

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He takes you from the mindset 
of, well, I'm a subject of the 

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system. 
There's no power that I have 

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except maybe I can vote once 
every four years and maybe I 

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could start a revolution and 
change the entire system. 

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Seoul focuses on the individual.
Look at people who show up to 

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work on time. 
Are they more likely or less 

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likely to get promoted than 
people who don't show up at all?

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Well, that's something you can 
actually control. 

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When you ask for on the job 
training, does that increase the

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amount of skills? 
Does that increase the amount of

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value you're providing to your 
employer? 

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Seoul is so empowering with this
message. 

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First born children have higher 
Iqs than later children. 

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Technology makes some people's 
jobs obsolete and opens up great

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opportunities for others. 
The unfairness of other people 

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is just one more item on this 
very long list. 

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How many are interested in the 
unfairness that has made us so 

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much more fortunate than people 
in previous centuries? 

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If the average American of today
could be transported back over 

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the centuries and become a 
nobleman in the Middle Ages, 

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that would produce a reduced 
standard of living and shorter 

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lifespan. 
Maybe that is the reason to 

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count our blessings instead of 
our grievances. 

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This is from Thomas Soul 
controversial essays. 

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Thank you for watching Keith 
Knight. 

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Don't try it on anyone and the 
Libertarian Institute. 

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Happy Thanksgiving.