Archive for Walter E. Williams
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.
Democracy or Republic?
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University. How often do we hear the claim that our nation is a democracy? Was a democratic form of government the vision of the Founders? As it turns out, the word democracy appears nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents [...]
1Jun2007 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedMinimum Wage, Maximum Folly
The big Associated Press story for last October 11 was that “More than 650 economists, including five winners of the Nobel Prize for economics, called Wednesday for an increase in the minimum wage, saying the value of the last increase, in 1997, has been ‘fully eroded.’ ” Among these economists were Nobel laureates such as [...]
1Mar2007 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedConstitution Day
On September 17, 1787, 39 men signed the U.S. Constitution. Each year since 2004 we have celebrated Constitution Day as a result of legislation, fathered by Senator Robert Byrd, that requires federal agencies and every school that receives federal funds, including universities, to have some kind of program on the Constitution. I cannot think of [...]
1Nov2006 | Walter E. Williams | 7 comments | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen: Part V
We’re all grossly ignorant about most things that we use and encounter in our daily lives, but each of us is knowledgeable about tiny, relatively inconsequential things. For example, a baker might be the best baker in town, but he’s grossly ignorant about virtually all the inputs that allow him to be the best baker. [...]
1Aug2006 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen, Part IV
There’s a reggae song that advises, “If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife.” Mechanics have been accused of charging women higher prices for emergency road repairs. Airlines charge business travelers higher prices than tourists. Car-rental companies and hotels often charge cheaper rates on [...]
1Apr2006 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen, Part III
Someone might have made you a gift of The Freeman.
Does that mean reading this article is free?
The answer is a big fat no.
Economics for the Citizen Part II
There are four classes of behavior that can be called economic behavior: production, consumption, exchange, and specialization. Production is any behavior that creates utility, that is, raises the want-satisfying capacity of something. When a mill smelts iron ore, it raises the want-satisfying capacity of the material by changing its form. The metal’s want-satisfying capacity is [...]
1Sep2005 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen
For the first time in 37 years, last fall semester I didn’t teach. No, I haven’t retired. It was my semester-off reward for two terms as department chairman at George Mason University. A break is well deserved after a chairmanship––a job not unlike that of herding cats. During fall semesters I typically teach our first-year [...]
1May2005 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedHonesty and Trust
Several decades ago I used to enjoy an occasional lunch with the late Professor G. Warren Nutter, a distinguished economist who taught at the University of Virginia. Professor Nutter had considerable expertise in comparative economic systems, particularly that of the former Soviet Union. While he had a deep understanding of economic theory, he always stressed [...]
1Feb2005 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedParting Company Is an Option
My last essay in The Freeman, “How Did We Get Here?” (March), provided clear evidence that Congress and the White House, as well as the courts, had vastly exceeded powers delegated to them by our Constitution. To have an appreciation for the magnitude of the usurpation, one need only read Federalist 45, where James Madison, [...]
1Jun2004 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | ContinuedPeople Before Profits
Whether it’s Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan leading the Million-Man March, anti-WTO (World Trade Organization) protesters, or AIDS activists, we’re frequently treated to the chant demanding “People Before Profits.” Since profit demagoguery is a deceptively appealing tool used by scoundrels everywhere, let’s demystify the concept of profits. Let’s first get its definition out of [...]
1Nov2003 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedAverage Americans versus Environmentalists
A few years ago American Enterprise magazine carried an article by Karl Zinsmeister titled “Environmentalists vs. Scientists.” It’s mostly a report on research published by two academics, Stanley Rothman and Robert Lichter, in their book Environmental Cancer: A Political Disease. The authors surveyed a cross-section of environmental leaders at organizations such as the Natural Resources [...]
1Jul2003 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedNazi Tactics
Prior to the 1930s, Germany was Europe’s most hospitable country for Jews. While Jews were only 1 percent of the population, they were oneourth of Germany’s law and medical students. In some German cities, Jews were the majority of doctors. While Jews were only 5 percent of the Berlin population in 1905, they paid 31 [...]
30Jan2003 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedMy Organs Are for Sale
According to a new book, The U.S. Organ Procurement System, written by economists David Kaserman and A. H. Barnett, there are 80,000 Americans on the organ-transplant waiting list. Twenty of them die each day as a direct result of organ shortages; that’s over 7,000 each year. These lost lives are not so much an act [...]
1Oct2002 | Walter E. Williams | 7 comments | ContinuedWhat Protects Consumers and Workers?
Baltimore Sun political writer H. L. Mencken once warned, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” As saviors, politicians then announce an array of government programs to safeguard a [...]
1Jul2002 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedWho Should Vote?
Status as an adult citizen in a political jurisdiction is seen as a sufficient condition to entitle one to vote for a representative or participate in collective decision-making. Why not apply that same criterion and entitle adult citizens to voting rights to decide the composition of corporate boards of directors and other corporate matters? If [...]
1Jan2002 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedPeaceable Conflict Resolution
Scarcity is the condition where human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants. Human wants seldom reveal their bounds, while the means to satisfy human wants are indeed limited. As a result, scarcity’s enduring legacy is conflict, and one of the conflict issues is: who will have use rights to goods and services? A [...]
1Oct2001 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | Continued-
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