Posted in Economics, Politics, Walter E Williams on August 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Walter E. Williams shared his views on deficits and debt in 1994. Almost twenty years later, the issue is as urgent as ever.
You went to war with us for ‘taxation without representation’.
So how do you feel about it with representation?One of the things we have to recognize is that there is little private incentive among all of us to downsize government spending.
Posted in Constitution, Obama, Politics, Thomas Sowell, USA, Walter E Williams on December 15, 2012| 3 Comments »
After the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut, several politicians, including President Obama, have suggested that stricter gun control laws are necessary. Here are a bunch of quotations to challenge their statements:
Thomas Jefferson:
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in Government.
Walter E. Williams:
The framers gave us the Second Amendment not so we could go deer or duck hunting but to give us a modicum of protection against congressional tyranny.
Phillip Van Cleave:
When seconds count between living or dying, the police are only minutes away.
William S. Burroughs:
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
Plato:
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Alan Eppers:
Dangerous laws created by well intentioned people today can be used by dangerous people with evil intentions tomorrow.
Robert H. Jackson:
It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
Paul Harvey Aurandt:
They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here?
Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman:
Never Forget, even for an instant, that the one and only reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you wouldn’t allow him to do if you were equipped to prevent it.
Posted in Libertarianism, Politics, USA, Walter E Williams on October 31, 2012| 1 Comment »
Walter E. Williams on the incremental decline of freedom in the United States:
I am not saying that we are a totalitarian nation yet. But if you ask the question, which way are we headed, tiny steps at a time, are we headed towards more personal liberty or are we headed towards more government control over our lives?
If you take tiny steps towards any goal, it is just a matter of when you are going to get to that goal.
Posted in Election 2012, Obama, Politics, Romney, USA, Walter E Williams on September 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »
President Obama’s campaign website has a special section called “African Americans for Obama“. I guess none of you has ever heard of this. But what if Romney had a similar page called “Whites for Mitt Romney”?
Walter E. Williams describes the double standards with respect to racial issues:
There is one standard that we hold whites up to, and another standard that we hold blacks up to.
Posted in Education, Thomas Sowell, Video, Walter E Williams on July 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »
One of the many reasons for the decline in the educational system in several Western countries might be nice teachers, as Thomas Sowell points out:
(text to be found here)
After a couple of decades of treating children as if they were as fragile as tissue paper, the net result is that Johnny can’t read and can’t think but often has a presumptuousness that deep thinkers call maturity.
Posted in Constitution, Economics, Libertarianism, Politics, USA, Video, Walter E Williams on July 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »
In case you lack some topics or questions to discuss, here we have Walter E. Williams providing a bunch of thought-provoking statements:
I believe people have the right to sell their organs, to bequeath them to their heirs.
There is nothing older in history of mankind than the idea that wisdom resides in the few, the elite.
I support greed, that is I want people to try to get as much as they can for themselves in honest ways.
Posted in John Stossel, Libertarianism, Politics, USA, Walter E Williams on March 1, 2012| 1 Comment »
Recently John Stossel hosted a show called “Illegal Everything” to discuss the absurdities of America’s current business laws. If you thought starting a business was easy, or that opening up a lemonade stand was legal, watch this:
Newcomers should be squeezed out.
(Washington Lobbyist)
Posted in Economics, Walter E Williams on December 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »
About a month ago, Walter E. Williams wrote an article for The New American in which he points to a common misunderstanding. Many non-economists tend to believe that corporate taxes were actually paid by corporations. In fact, however, taxes are only paid by flesh-and-blood people. In the same way that dogs do not pay dog taxes or cars do not pay car taxes, corporations do not pay corporate taxes. So, the big question really is who actually bears the burden of a tax.
Walter E. Williams – Who pays corporate taxes?
The largest burden of corporate taxes is borne by workers.
However, I would answer the question in a different way: If tax liabilities of any company were reduced by, say, $10’000, who would get what share of the ten grand? Basically there are three options: (i) share holders receive a larger dividend, (ii) the value of the company increases (if the money is invested), (iii) or workers would receive higher wages. Given the elasticities and bargaining power, it seems reasonable to assume that workers actually bear a big junk of corporate taxes.
Posted in Economics, Obama, Politics, Video, Walter E Williams on October 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Walter E. Williams on the relationship between government taking care of people and personal liberty. A two-minute video that you should not miss.
If you give government the right to take care of people, then government has a right to tell you what to do.
Posted in Economics, Walter E Williams on August 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »
A brilliant 9-minute course on economics and liberty by Walter E. Williams:
We can think of dollars as certificates of performance. […] And those certificates of performance stand as evidence that I have served my fellow men.
Those who would call Pavarotti’s income as unfair and would have government take some of it to give to others, are essentially saying “we disagree with decisions of millions and millions acting voluntarily that resulted in Pavarotti’s higher income”.
When a thief robs you, he redistributes income from you to him. Now, the primary distinction between his behavior and that of Congress is simply a matter of legality.
Swiss Economist 