Good intentions do not fill store shelves or heat homes. Systems do. Socialism promises fairness, but wherever it has been tried in earnest, it has produced shortages, stagnation, and too often repression — because it severs effort from reward, prices from information, and citizens from property. When no one owns the outcome, no one is truly responsible, and the engine of creativity stalls. The irony Sowell points out is that some highly educated minds can explain away these plain results with clever theories, while ordinary people can see the empty shelves and long lines.

Compassion demands we judge by outcomes, not slogans. If we want dignity for the poor, opportunity for the young, and security for the old, we need freedom to work, trade, build, and keep what we earn — along with the moral duty to care for our neighbors. That path has lifted billions and keeps hope alive.