Archive for Walter E. Williams

Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

Lifestyle Nazi Update

We are not doing the same kind of things with obesity that we have done with smoking and alcohol as far as the government is concerned. It’s got to be like smoking, a constant drumbeat.” That’s former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, appearing on CNN, January 11, 2000, calling for the nation’s lifestyle Nazis to attack fat people as they attacked smokers.

1Jul2001 | Walter E. Williams | 2 comments | Continued

Racial Profiling

Former President Clinton called for a national crackdown on racial profiling and ordered federal law-enforcement authorities to begin an investigation. While running for president Al Gore promised the NAACP that if elected, eliminating racial profiling by the nation’s police departments would be a top priority.

1Apr2001 | Walter E. Williams | 29 comments | Continued

What Should One Do?

Let’s do a thought experiment. I’m ordered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to perform, without compensation, cleaning services at a local retirement home. I’ve not been found guilty in a court of law of a crime for which I’m being punished.

1Jan2001 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Greed Versus Compassion

What’s the noblest of human motivations? Some might be tempted to answer: charity, love of one’s neighbor, or, in modern, politically correct language, giving something back or feeling another’s pain. In my book, these are indeed noble motivations, but they pale in comparison to a much more potent motivation for human action.

1Oct2000 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | Continued

Silly Talking

Let’s talk about absolutely ridiculous pronouncements people make that either ignore simple fact or border on insanity. How about this one: Violence is no way to settle anything! Evidence suggests that violence is a very effective way of settling things. Let’s look at a few examples.

1Jul2000 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | Continued

Who May Harm Whom?

Smoking has been one of the hot controversies of our time. Many people find tobacco smoke annoying, smelly, and just plain dirty and unpleasant. Some smokers themselves agree. ut today’s smoking restrictions, not to mention the attack on smokers and extortion of tobacco companies, could not have been engineered simply on the grounds that tobacco smoke is unpleasant.

1Apr2000 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Capitalism and the Common Man

There are some arguments, having a faint measure of plausibility, that have served politicians, charlatans, and assorted do-gooders for well over a century in their quest for control. One of those arguments is: capitalism primarily benefits the rich and not the common man. That vision prompts declarations such as Representative Richard Gephardt’s assertion that high-income [...]

1Jan2000 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Conflicting Visions

People generally share common goals. Most of us want: poor people to enjoy higher standards of living, greater traffic safety, fewer wars, greater racial harmony, cleaner air and water, and less crime. Despite their common goals, more often than not we see people grouped into factions, fighting tooth and nail to promote differing government policies. [...]

1Oct1999 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Ignorance Is Bliss—Maybe

Not having experienced much of the past is a mixed blessing. What’s grotesque, shocking, and unheard of to older Americans might seem normal, perhaps just a bit curious, to younger Americans. For example, last year New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial brought suit against gun manufacturers to recover carnage costs in his city.

1Jul1999 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

What American Education Needs

For over four decades the public education establishment has delivered one educational disaster after another. “Solution” after “solution” has fallen far short of promises. The education establishment’s perennial answer to our education problems is more money.

1Apr1999 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | Continued

The Civil War’s Tragic Legacy

The Civil War produced at least two important outcomes. First, although it was not President Lincoln’s intent, it freed slaves in the Confederate States. Second, it settled the question of whether states could secede from the Union. The causes of and the issues surrounding America’s most costly war in terms of battlefield casualties are still [...]

1Jan1999 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Fairness: Results Versus Process

Those of us who support liberty, limited government, and rule of law will never prevail in the public arena until we can compellingly make the case that free markets and voluntary exchange are inherently fairer than alternative forms of social organization.

1Oct1998 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Social Justice

The pursuit of social justice probably accounts for most human misery. What’s more, throughout history, one form of injustice has usually been replaced by another that is far worse. Russia’s 1917 revolution expelling the Czars and their injustices ushered in Lenin, Stalin, and a succession of brutal dictators who murdered tens of millions in the name of the proletarian revolution.

1Jul1998 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Discrimination and Liberty

(Editor’s Note: We herewith inaugurate a new monthly feature: The Pursuit of Happiness. Its regular contributors will be Walter Williams, one of the most prominent defenders of liberty today, and Charles Baird, an economist specializing in the freedom of workers. Guest contributors will also occupy this space.) How much should we care if people discriminate? [...]

1Apr1998 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | Continued

Perspective: Poverty and Freedom

Poverty is an uninteresting subject. Poverty has been, and continues to be, man’s standard fate throughout his entire history. The reason is simple. People are poor because they cannot produce much that is valued by others. The intriguing question is why a tiny percentage of the world’s population, for only a tiny part of man’s [...]

1Mar1993 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Perspective: On Innovation

Innovation—changing resource use to reflect new knowledge, new opportunities, or new problems—can substantially increase the sustainable output from a given resource. But change always brings painful transition, and if those orchestrating the change cannot personally benefit (for example, by growing richer), then they will be less willing to fight through the changes or indeed to [...]

1Mar1992 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Perspective: Apartheid: War on Capitalism

The whole ugly history of apartheid has been an attack on free markets and the rights of individuals, and a glorification of centralized government power. In 1900 when South African Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts said, “It is ordained that we [Afrikaners], insignificant as we are, should be amongst the first people to begin the [...]

1Apr1990 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued
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