Archived Columns From 2011

by Walter Williams

2011 January

True or FalseJanuary 05, 2011

So many statements we accept as true, plausible or beyond question; but are they? Let’s look at a couple of important ones: global warming and U.S. manufactu...

What Our Constitution PermitsJanuary 12, 2011

Here’s the House of Representatives new rule: “A bill or joint resolution may not be introduced unless the sponsor has submitted for printing in the Congress...

Why We're a Divided NationJanuary 19, 2011

Some Americans have strong, sometimes unyielding preferences for Mac computers, while most others have similarly strong preferences for PCs and wouldn’t be c...

Can Our Union be Saved?January 26, 2011

National debt is over $14 trillion, the federal budget deficit is $1.4 trillion and, depending on whose estimates are used, the unfunded liability or indebte...

2011 February

Black EducationFebruary 02, 2011

In my “Black Education Disaster” column (12/22/10), I presented National Assessment of Educational Progress test data that demonstrated that an average black...

A Killer AgencyFebruary 09, 2011

Sam Kazman’s “Drug Approvals and Deadly Delays” article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Winter 2010), tells a story about how the U.S. Fo...

Self-Inflicted PovertyFebruary 16, 2011

Why is it that Egyptians do well in the U.S. but not Egypt? We could make that same observation and pose that same question about Nigerians, Cambodians, Jama...

Democracy Versus LibertyFebruary 23, 2011

It is truly disgusting for me to hear politicians, national and international talking heads and pseudo-academics praising the Middle East stirrings as democr...

2011 March

Public Employee UnionsMarch 02, 2011

With all of the union strife in Wisconsin, Indiana and New Jersey, and indications of more to come, it might be time to shed a bit of light on unions as an e...

Handouts, Morality and Common SenseMarch 09, 2011

Whether Americans realize it or not, the last decade’s path of congressional spending is unsustainable. Spending must be reined in, but what spending should ...

Continuing Stubborn IgnoranceMarch 16, 2011

Within the past decade, I’ve written three columns titled “Deception 101,” “Stubborn Ignorance,” and “Exploiting Public Ignorance,” all explaining which bran...

Economic LunacyMarch 23, 2011

Economic lunacy abounds, and often the most learned, including Nobel Laureates, are its primary victims. The most recent example of economic lunacy is found ...

Department of InjusticeMarch 30, 2011

One of the requirements to become a Dayton, Ohio police officer is to successfully pass the city’s two-part written examination. Applicants must correctly an...

2011 April

Diversity PerversityApril 06, 2011

The terms affirmative action, equal representation, preferential treatment and quotas just don’t sell well. The intellectual elite and their media, governmen...

Eat the RichApril 13, 2011

I’ve often said that I wish there were some humane way to get rid of the rich. If you asked why, I’d answer that getting rid of the rich would save us from d...

Academic RotApril 20, 2011

The average American, as parent, student and taxpayer, has little idea of the academic rot at so many of our colleges. Save for a tiny handful of the nation’...

Smugglers As HeroesApril 27, 2011

Smugglers are heroes of sorts. The essence of what a smuggler offers is: “Government tyrants want to either prevent or interfere with peaceable voluntary exc...

2011 May

Let's Blame SpeculatorsMay 04, 2011

Here’s a non-rocket science question: If you expect a reduced harvest of wheat, corn, rice or any other commodity some time in the future, what would be the ...

Minimum Wage's Discriminatory EffectsMay 11, 2011

As if more proof were needed about the minimum wage’s devastating effects, yet another study has reached the same conclusion. Last week, two labor economists...

Understanding LiberalsMay 18, 2011

The liberal vision of government is easily understood and makes perfect sense if one acknowledges their misunderstanding and implied assumptions about the so...

Common Sense Versus NonsenseMay 25, 2011

William J. McGee, the consumer advocate on the Department of Transportation’s Future of Aviation Advisory Committee wrote “Forcing the F.A.A. to Fly Blind” i...

2011 June

Do We Deserve Our Fate?June 01, 2011

The latest Social Security Trustees Report tells us that the program will be insolvent by the year 2037. The combined unfunded liability of Social Security a...

Irksome ThingsJune 08, 2011

There are a lot of things, large and small, that irk me. One of them is our tendency to evaluate a presidential candidate based on his intelligence or academ...

Our Moral DilemmaJune 15, 2011

Most of our nation’s problems are a direct result of our being immune, hostile or indifferent to several moral questions. Let’s start out with the simple and...

America's New RacistsJune 22, 2011

The late South African economist William Hutt, in his 1964 book, “The Economics of the Colour Bar,” said that one of the supreme tragedies of the human condi...

Ignorance, Stupidity or ManipulationJune 29, 2011

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., referring to his race and the Constitution on John Stossel’s recent show “The State Against Blacks,” said, “I wasn’t even consid...

2011 July

Gross Media IgnoranceJuly 06, 2011

There’s little that’s intelligent or informed about Time magazine editor Richard Stengel’s article “One Document, Under Siege” (June 23, 2011). It contains m...

Failing Liberty 101July 13, 2011

A recent Superman comic book has the hero saying, “I am renouncing my U.S. citizenship” because “truth, justice, and the American way — it’s not enough anymo...

Education Is Worse Than We ThoughtJuly 20, 2011

Last December, I reported on Harvard University professor Stephan Thernstrom’s essay “Minorities in College — Good News, But…,” on Minding the Campus, a webs...

Job Destruction Makes Us RicherJuly 27, 2011

Here’s what President Barack Obama said about our high rate of unemployment in an interview with NBC’s Ann Curry: “The other thing that happened, though — an...

2011 August

Cruel LawsAugust 03, 2011

What does it take to be able to own and operate a taxi and earn $30,000, $40,000 or more a year? You need to purchase a used car and liability insurance. Com...

Ignorance, Stupidity or Connivance?August 10, 2011

President Barack Obama has called for a luxury tax on corporate jets as a means to generate revenue to fight federal deficits. The president’s economic advis...

Ominous ParallelsAugust 17, 2011

People are beginning to compare Barack Obama’s administration to the failed administration of Jimmy Carter, but a better comparison is to the Roosevelt admin...

Legal ObedienceAugust 24, 2011

What laws are we morally obligated to obey? Help with the answer can be found in “Economic Liberty and the Constitution,” a 66-page pamphlet by Jacob G. Horn...

Race and EconomicsAugust 31, 2011

Overall U.S. unemployment is 9.1 percent. For white adults, it’s 8 percent, and for white teens, 23 percent. Black adult unemployment stands at 17 percent, a...

2011 September

Blacks and PoliticsSeptember 07, 2011

At one of last month’s Congressional Black Caucus-sponsored “job fairs,” Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told the audience: “This is the effort that we’re seeing ...

Too Much Higher EducationSeptember 14, 2011

Too much of anything is just as much a misallocation of resources as it is too little, and that applies to higher education just as it applies to everything ...

Gov. Perry's Right About Social SecuritySeptember 21, 2011

During the recent GOP presidential debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that Social Security is a “monstrous lie” and a “Ponzi scheme.” More and more people ar...

The Financial Mess in the US and EuropeSeptember 28, 2011

What’s the common thread between Europe’s financial mess, particularly among the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain), and the financial mess i...

2011 October

Social Security DisasterOctober 05, 2011

Politicians who are principled enough to point out the fraud of Social Security, referring to it as a lie and Ponzi scheme, are under siege. Acknowledgment o...

It's Hard To Be a RacistOctober 12, 2011

Years ago it was easy to be a racist. All you had to be was a white person using some of the racial epithets that are routinely used in song and everyday spe...

Pitting Us Against Each OtherOctober 19, 2011

President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have led increasingly successful efforts to pit Americans against one another through the politics of hate an...

Profits Are for PeopleOctober 26, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are demanding “people before profits” — as if profit motivation were the source of mankind’s troubles — when it’s often ...

2011 November

Democracy Is ImpossibleNovember 02, 2011

After Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall as Libya’s tyrannical ruler, politicians and “experts” in the U.S. and elsewhere, including French Foreign Minister Alain Ju...

Ignorance ExploitedNovember 09, 2011

Many Wall Street occupiers are echoing the Communist Party USA’s call to “Save the nation! Tax corporations! Tax the rich!” There are other Americans, on bot...

Poverty in America?November 16, 2011

According to CBS News, “the number of people in the U.S. living in poverty in 2010 rose for the fourth year in a row, representing the largest number of Amer...

Should the Rich Be Condemned?November 23, 2011

Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb, the phonograph, the DC motor and other items in everyday use and became wealthy by doing so. Thomas Watson foun...

Ending Income Inequality?November 30, 2011

Benefiting from a hint from an article titled “Is Harry Potter Making You Poorer?”, written by my colleague Dr. John Goodman, president of the Dallas-based N...

2011 December

Free To Die?December 07, 2011

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column titled “Free to Die” (9/15/2011), pointed out that back in 1980, his late fellow Nob...

Economic FairnessDecember 14, 2011

The most prevalent theme in President Barack Obama’s Dec. 6 Osawatomie, Kan., speech was the need for greater “fairness.” In fact, though the president never...

China Trade: Myths vs. RealityDecember 21, 2011

Republicans and Democrats, liberals as well as conservatives, have bought into anti-Chinese trade demagoguery. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested th...

Gullible AmericansDecember 28, 2011

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman has called for states to mandate a total ban on cellphone usage while driving. She has also e...