Walter Williams

What passes for educational enlightenment these days boggles the mind. Matt Gouras, of The Associated Press, writing in the Jan. 5 Seattle Times tells a story about Tennessee schools. The success of some students has made other students feel badly about themselves....

In Marcus Cook Connelly’s spiritual play, “Green Pastures,” God lamented to the Angel Gabriel, “Every time Ah passes a miracle, Ah has to pass fo’ or five mo’ to ketch up wid it,” and adding, “Even bein God ain’t...

The first concept an economics student learns is that for every benefit there’s also a cost — or, as my longtime colleague and friend Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman has put it, “There’s no free lunch.” While the person who receives the...

Having been deserted by her husband, my mother worked. That meant that my one-year-younger sister and I often lunched by ourselves during our pre-teen years. Being bigger and stronger than my sister, quite often there wouldn’t be a fair division of the food,...

Here’s a question. Suppose you see people lining up for hours, and people willing to pay a month’s salary in bribes, in order to get a $2 a day factory job. What might you conclude? Would you guess there are higher-paying jobs around, but the people are...

What needs to be done to improve black education? Whether it’s civil rights organizations, politicians or the education establishment, you’ll get answers that cover the gamut from more money for teachers and smaller class sizes to school desegregation and...

It might have been Ross Perot who first used the expression that America is turning into a nation of “hamburger flippers,” in reference to the decline in good paying manufacturing jobs replaced by low-pay service sector jobs. Here’s my question: If...

Literally hundreds of readers informed me that in last week’s column, “Some Things I Wonder About,” my reference to a Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City — who set his 32-foot Winnebago on cruise control, left the driver’s seat to brew a cup...

Early in our marriage, 40-some years ago, Mrs. Williams would return from shopping complaining about the unreasonable prices. Having aired her complaints, she’d then ask me to unload her car laden with purchases. After the unloading, I’d ask her: “I...

Why are we a rich nation? It’s tempting to suggest our wealth is a result of bountiful natural resources. However, if bountiful resources were the source of wealth, South America and Africa would be rich instead of being mired in poverty. Hong Kong, Japan and...

There’s a little known law called the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. It remains on the books today. Before saying what the law is and its effects, let me run by you some of the language used, in the early 1930s, to push the law through Congress. Rep. John Cochran of...

In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421,000 switchboard operators. In the same year, Americans made 9.8 billion long distance calls. Today, the telecommunications industry employs only 78,000 operators. That’s a tremendous 80 percent job loss. What...

The largest losers of America’s anti-tobacco crusade aren’t tobacco companies and smokers, it’s the American people who are incrementally giving up private property rights. You say, “Hold it, Williams, I agree that people have the right to...

What I celebrate as a source of pride and self-esteem is the fact that I have brown eyes. You say, “Williams, that goes to prove what we’ve been saying all along. You’re a lunatic! Is having brown eyes some kind of accomplishment?” Such a...

People think runaway government is the only thing that bothers me, but there’re some minor nuisances that bother me as well. Chief among them are people’s seeming inability to differentiate between the number zero and the letter “o” in...

Adam Smith, author of “The Wealth of Nations” (1776) and popularizer of modern economics said about people in general and businessmen in particular, “By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he...

Last week’s column discussed parts of Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom’s new book, “ No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning .” It’s a gap that finds the average black high-school graduate having achieved only what the average white...

There are some arguments so illogical that only an intellectual or politician can believe them. One of those arguments is: capitalism benefits the rich more than it benefits the ‘common man.’ Let’s look at it. The rich have always had access to...

“Excellent schools deliver a clear message to their students: No Excuses. No excuses for failing to do your homework, failing to work hard in general; no excuses for fighting with other students, running in the hallways, dressing inappropriately and so...