Thomas Sowell’s latest column posted by the Washington Examiner contrasts the thought processes that motivate decisions in the public and private sectors.
Under the headline “Foreclosed Homes Sell at Big Discounts,” USA Today reported that banks were selling the homes they foreclosed on, at discounts of 38 percent in Tennessee to 41 percent in Illinois and Ohio.
Banks in general try to get rid of the homes they acquire by foreclosure, by selling them quickly for whatever they can get. Why? Because banks are forced by economic realities to realize that they are not real estate companies.
No matter how much expertise bank officials may have in financial transactions, that is very different from knowing the best ways to maintain and market empty houses.
Meanwhile, there was a story on the Fox News Channel about schools that are using their time to indoctrinate kindergartners and fourth graders with politically correct attitudes about sex.
Anyone familiar with the low standards and mushy notions in the schools and departments of education that turn out our public school teachers might think that these teachers would have all they can do to make American children competent in reading, writing and math.
Anyone familiar with how our children stack up with children from other countries in basic education would be painfully aware that American children lag behind children in countries that spend far less per pupil than we do.
In other words, teachers and schools that are failing to provide the basics of education are branching out into all sorts of other areas, where they have even less competence.
Why are teachers so bold when banks are so cautious? The banks pay a price for being wrong. Teachers don’t.
