Archived Columns From 2010

by Walter Williams

2010 January

Untrue BeliefsJanuary 06, 2010

Here’s a sample of last week’s news reporting: “A new decade is about to start …”, “What better way to start a new year and decade …”, and “ABC ‘World News’ ...

Global Warming Is a ReligionJanuary 13, 2010

Manmade global warming, for many, is an Earth-worshipping religion. The essential feature of any religion is that its pronouncements are to be accepted on th...

Haiti's Avoidable Death TollJanuary 20, 2010

Some expect Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake death toll to reach over 200,000 lives. Why the high death toll? Northern California’s 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was mor...

We Need DiversityJanuary 27, 2010

It’s not at all uncommon to watch a college basketball game and see that 90 to 100 percent of the players are black. According to the University of Central F...

2010 February

Global Warming UpdateFebruary 03, 2010

John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, in an hour-long television documentary titled “Global Warming: The Other Side,” presents evidence that our Nati...

Black Opportunity DestructionFebruary 10, 2010

“Do you mean he is taller than me am?” sarcastically barked Dr. Martin Rosenberg, my high school English teacher, to one of the students in our class. The st...

The Census and the ConstitutionFebruary 17, 2010

The Census Bureau estimates that the life cycle cost of the 2010 Census will be from $13.7 billion to $14.5 billion, making it the costliest census in the na...

Global Warming UpdateFebruary 24, 2010

Private industry and governments around the world have spent trillions of dollars in the name of saving our planet from manmade global warming. Academic inst...

2010 March

Who Poses the Greater Threat?March 03, 2010

Bill Gates is the world’s richest person, but what kind of power does he have over you? Can he force your kid to go to a school you do not want him to attend...

Is Health Care a Right?March 10, 2010

Most politicians, and probably most Americans, see health care as a right. Thus, whether a person has the means to pay for medical services or not, he is non...

The Warmers Strike BackMarch 17, 2010

Stephen Dinan’s Washington Times article “Climate Scientist to Fight Back at Skeptics,” (March 5, 2010) tells of a forthcoming campaign that one global warme...

Constitutional AwakeningMarch 24, 2010

If there is anything good to say about Democrat control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, it’s that their extraordinarily brazen, heav...

Conflict or CooperationMarch 31, 2010

Different Americans have different and often intense preferences for all kinds of goods and services. Some of us have strong preferences for beer and distast...

2010 April

Parting CompanyApril 07, 2010

Here’s the question asked in my September 2000 column titled “It’s Time To Part Company”: “If one group of people prefers government control and management o...

Minimum Wage CrueltyApril 14, 2010

Which allows an American Samoan worker to have a higher standard of living: being employed at $3.26 per hour or unemployed at a wage scheduled to annually in...

Taxes and VotingApril 21, 2010

According to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., research organization, nearly half of U.S. households will pay no federal income taxes for 2009. That...

Salt TyrantsApril 28, 2010

Here’s how my June 14, 2006 column started: “Down through the years, I’ve attempted to warn my fellow Americans about the tyrannical precedent and template f...

2010 May

Black Americans and LibertyMay 05, 2010

Having recently reached 74 years of age, if one were to ask me what’s my greatest disappointment in life, a top contender would surely be the level of misund...

Free Markets: Pro-Rich or Pro-PoorMay 12, 2010

Listening to America’s liberals, who now prefer to call themselves progressives, one would think that free markets benefit the rich and harm the poor, but li...

Immigration and LibertyMay 19, 2010

My sentiments on immigration are expressed by the welcoming words of poet Emma Lazarus’ that grace the base of our Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, yo...

Minimum Wage Cruelty: UpdateMay 26, 2010

“Minimum Wage Cruelty” (4/14/10) was my column about the unemployment effects of Congress’ 2007 minimum wage increase on the canning industry in American Sam...

2010 June

The Right To DiscriminateJune 02, 2010

Rand Paul of Kentucky, U.S. Senate hopeful, is caught up in a swirl of controversy in response to his comments on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.” He has been d...

Can Black Americans Afford Obama?June 09, 2010

My March 2008 column “Is Obama Ready for America?” started out: “Some pundits ask whether America is ready for Obama. The much more important question is whe...

Economic Myths, Fallacies and StupidityJune 16, 2010

George Orwell admonished, “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.” That’s what I want to do — talk about the obvious....

Government Aggravated TragedyJune 23, 2010

When Thomas Paine said, “(G)overnment, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.” He added that when it’s self-...

Where Best To Be PoorJune 30, 2010

Imagine you are an unborn spirit whom God has condemned to a life of poverty but has permitted to choose the nation in which to live. I’m betting that most a...

2010 July

The Founders' Vision Versus OursJuly 07, 2010

The celebration of our founders’ 1776 revolt against King George III and the English Parliament is over. Let’s reflect how the founders might judge today’s A...

A Failed Obama HeroJuly 14, 2010

Let’s think about President Obama’s failed economic stimulus program. Before getting to the nitty-gritty of why stimulus packages fail, let’s look at the fai...

Making Americans SickJuly 21, 2010

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius promised, “The U.S. government plans to increase funding to battle obesity and views healthcare reform ...

Racism or StupidityJuly 28, 2010

A black or white person, now dead, who lived during the civil rights struggles of the 1930s, ’40s or ’50s, might very well be appalled and disgusted by black...

2010 August

Is Profiling Racist?August 04, 2010

We live in a world of imperfect and costly information, and people seek to economize on information costs in a variety of ways. If we don’t take that fact in...

What Handouts To CutAugust 11, 2010

Because of failure to heed the limitations of the U.S. Constitution, which has produced runaway federal spending, our nation sits on the precipice of disaste...

Will Republicans Save Us?August 18, 2010

Democrat control of the White House, House of Representatives and the Senate has produced an unprecedented level of political brazenness and contempt for the...

Who Cares About Our Future?August 25, 2010

My column titled “What Handouts to Cut?” created a number of angry responses, and for the first time in my life, I had some, not much, sympathy for political...

2010 September

Something for NothingSeptember 01, 2010

Perhaps the most difficult economic lesson is that we live in a world of scarcity and everything has a cost. Scarcity exists whenever human wants exceed the ...

Racial Stupidity and MalevolenceSeptember 08, 2010

The white liberal’s agenda, coupled with that of black race hustlers, has had and continues to have a devastating impact on ordinary black people. Perhaps th...

Liberal CrackupSeptember 15, 2010

Charles Krauthammer, in his Washington Post column (8/27/10), said, “Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed,” pointing out that overwhelming majoriti...

Profit versus NonprofitSeptember 22, 2010

“Philadelphia Scandal Underscores Pitiful State of Public Housing Oversight,” read Jonathan Berr’s Aug. 28 report in the Daily Finance. It was a story about ...

Liberals Confuse MeSeptember 29, 2010

Christine O’Donnell, U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware, has faced considerable criticism and news media attention about her youthful association with witch...

2010 October

Politicians Exploit Economic IgnoranceOctober 06, 2010

One of President Obama’s campaign promises was not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans. So here’s my question: If there’s a corporate tax increase eithe...

Invisible VictimsOctober 13, 2010

The National Transportation Safety Board has again recommended that airlines require a separate seat for all children, regardless of age, eliminating the cur...

Leftists, Progressives and SocialistsOctober 20, 2010

One of the greatest sources of confusion and deception is the difference between leftists, progressives, socialists, communists and fascists. I thought about...

Our Contemptible CongressOctober 27, 2010

Most people whom we elect to Congress are either ignorant of, have contempt for or are just plain stupid about the United States Constitution. You say: “Whoa...

2010 November

Virginia's Black ConfederatesNovember 03, 2010

One tragedy of war is that its victors write its history and often do so with bias and dishonesty. That’s true about our War of 1861, erroneously called a ci...

Worry Over Trade DeficitsNovember 10, 2010

At the recent Group of 20 (G 20) meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner called upon the largest industrialized economies to get their current a...

How To Control CongressNovember 17, 2010

Let’s assume that each of our 535 congressmen cares about the destructive impact of deficits and debt on the future of our country. Regardless of party, cong...

Health TyrantsNovember 24, 2010

Do federal, state and local governments have a right to intervene in our lives when it comes to choices affecting our health? Recently, the San Francisco Boa...

2010 December

Minimum Wage, Maximum FollyDecember 01, 2010

How about this: The law of gravity is applicable to the behavior of falling objects on the U.S. mainland but not applicable on our Pacific Ocean territories ...

Moral or Immoral GovernmentDecember 08, 2010

Immorality in government lies at the heart of our nation’s problems. Deficits, debt and runaway government are merely symptoms. What’s moral and immoral cond...

Changing AmericaDecember 15, 2010

Dr. Thomas Sowell, in “Dismantling America,” said in reference to President Obama, “That such an administration could be elected in the first place, headed b...

Black Education DisasterDecember 22, 2010

Harvard University Professor Stephan Thernstrom’s recent essay, “Minorities in College—-Good News, But…,” in Minding the Campus (11/4/10), a website sponsore...

Free or Fair?December 29, 2010

At first blush, the mercantilists’ call for “free trade but fair trade” sounds reasonable. After all, who can be against fairness? Giving the idea just a bit...