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Walter E. Williams
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Walter E. Williams, Ph. D. (born 1936 in Philadelphia) is an American economist and college professor at George Mason University. He is also a syndicated columnist and author known for his libertarian and sometimes conservative views.
He is an occasional guest host of Rush Limbaugh's radio program and Lawrence Kudlow's Kudlow & Company TV program. He is also a cousin of former NBA player Julius Erving.
Education and academic career
He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972.
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Encyclopedia
Walter E. Williams, Ph. D. (born 1936 in Philadelphia) is an American economist and college professor at George Mason University. He is also a syndicated columnist and author known for his libertarian and sometimes conservative views.
He is an occasional guest host of Rush Limbaugh's radio program and Lawrence Kudlow's Kudlow & Company TV program. He is also a cousin of former NBA player Julius Erving.
Education and academic career
He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972. Since being a graduate student at UCLA, he has been a friend of economist and columnist Thomas Sowell. Correspondence between Sowell and Williams appears in the 2007 "A Man of Letters" by Sowell. Williams has been a Professor of Economics at George Mason University since 1980, and chairman of that University's Economics department from 1995 to 2001.
He has previously been on the faculty of Los Angeles City College, California State University - Los Angeles, Temple University, and Grove City College.
Writing career
Williams has written hundreds of articles and his syndicated column is published weekly in approximately 140 newspapers across the United States, as well as on several web sites.
Economic and political views
As an economist, Williams often speaks and writes about virtues of the free market, the detriments of socialist systems and government intervention, and often cites real world examples to make his point. He has said "That's a challenge I love: making economics fun and understandable."
Williams supports legalization of organ trafficking to increase the supply of organs for transplant, stating that the true proof of whether or not an individual owns something is whether or not they have the right to sell it. If selling organs is illegal, then subsequently individuals do not own their own bodies.
Williams is an African-American, and is an outspoken champion of black education, frequently indicting the educational systems of inner city schools for perpetuating, in his words, "a fraud against African-American students and families by lowered standards." He is also a critic of the minimum wage and affirmative action, believing that both practices are detrimental to blacks and detrimental to liberty. Williams especially emphasizes his belief that racism and the legacy of slavery in the United States are overemphasized as problems faced by the black community and do not adequately explain the situation blacks face today.
Holding conservative and libertarian viewpoints, Williams criticizes gun control as endangering the innocent and failing to reduce crime.
Williams praises capitalism (of a laissez-faire variety) as being the most moral and most productive system man has ever devised. "Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man."
He has gone on record as advocating the Free State Project in at least two columns and once on television. The Williams endorsement correlated with the largest single membership jump in the first 5000 phase of the project, a jump even higher than the results of the project being Slashdotted. He also believes in the right of U.S. states to secede from the union as several states attempted to do during the Civil War. Williams has supported or been sympathetic toward various secessionist ideas in his writings.
Non-profit activities
Williams serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Bruin Alumni Association.
Presidential draft campaign
Cartoonist Bruce Tinsley, in his conservative comic strip Mallard Fillmore, launched a campaign to draft Williams for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. Although Williams stated that he wouldn't completely rule out the possibility, he ultimately decided against such a run.
Personal Life
Williams married his wife Connie in 1960. Mrs. Williams passed away on December 29, 2007. They have one daughter, Devyn, who resides in Los Angeles, California.
Books
- ISBN 0-07-070378-7 The State Against Blacks (1984)
- ISBN 0-8179-7562-4 America: a Minority Viewpoint (1982)
- ISBN 0-89526-569-9 All It Takes Is Guts: A Minority View (1988)
- ISBN 0-275-93179-X South Africa's War Against Capitalism (1989)
- ISBN 0-8179-9382-7 Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks (1995)
- ISBN 0-8179-9612-5 More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well (1999)
- ISBN 0-8179-4912-9 Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays (2008)
See also
External links
- () ()()
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- Williams discusses economics and life on EconTalk.
- His Introduction (pdf) to
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