Unvarnished Views of a "Radical" Economist: Walter E. Williams on More Innovation, Less Regulation, and the Entrepreneur as an American Hero

Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Jul 2005 by Ali, Abdiweli

Executive Summary

Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Virginia, has a B.A. degree in economics from California State University. He has M. A. and PhD degrees in economics from UCLA. In addition, he holds a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Virginia Union University.

Dr. Williams, born in Philadelphia in 1936, grew up in a North Philadelphia housing project, and graduated from high school in 1954. For a brief period, he drove a taxi cab in Philadelphia until he was drafted into the U.S. Army. While in the army, "I said to myself-1 was 25 years old at the time - if I don't get started now, I'm never going to be anything." He wrote to his wife, whom he had married in 1960, "and I told her as soon as we save $700 we're going to leave Philadelphia and head to Los Angeles, and I'm going to go to college."

After receiving his PhD in 1972, he worked for the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. In addition to George Mason, where he has worked for 25 years, Dr. Williams has served on the faculties of Los Angeles City College, California State University at Los Angeles, and Temple University in Philadelphia. His research has appeared in scholarly journals such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, Journal of Labor Economics, and Social Science Quarterly, and he has also written for popular publications such as Newsweek, National Review and Reader's Digest.

Dr. Williams' many radio and television appearances include Dr. Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose," ABC "Nightwatch, "Star Spangled Line," and CNN. He has also served as a frequent guest host on the Rush Limbaugh radio program. He has authored six books, including The State Against Blacks, which was published in 1982 and later became a television documentary entitled Good Intentions. His most recent book is More Liberty Means Less Government. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Williams writes frequent newspaper and magazine columns in which he comments on a variety of economic as well as social issues.

Author: Many consider you to be a conservative economist. Do you accept that label?

Williams: Well, probably I'm not a conservative at all. I guess politically I'm a radical, a radical very much like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and other founders of our great nation. When I say radical, I believe in personal liberty, and today there are not many Americans who believe in personal liberty. Many people who call themselves conservatives are not for liberty. Many conservatives are supporters of tariffs, many conservatives are supporters of the growth of government regulation and control and so many other things I don't support.

Author: How did your views form: growing up, in college studies or life experiences?

Williams: Probably it was a combination of all of those. My mother was a radical person, the kind of person who would say as long as you don't bother me, I don't bother you. I was also heavily influenced by the writings of Thomas Paine. I must have read his book, Common Sense, perhaps 50 times. A number of my teachers at California State and UCLA were also very helpful in forming my outlook on life, and then again my personal experiences as well.

Author: At UCLA, probably Armen Alchian and others?

Williams: Yes, several of my tenacious mentors, Armen Alchian, Jack Hirshleifer and Axel Leijonhufvud. They were quite influential in my life as well as Milton Friedman (Nobel Laureate in economics). I have maintained an association with him for quite some time, and I met him when he was visiting at UCLA for a semester, teaching monetary theory.

Author: Which of your career achievements gives you the most sense of accomplishment and why? As a commentator? As an academic? You are well-known in many circles. Which of these accomplishments are you most proud of?

Williams: I think I'm most proud of being a commentator, both writing a nationally syndicated column and doing radio interviews. Why I say that is that when I was a graduate student at UCLA, Armen Alchian used to pick on me a lot, but (it was) kind of friendly picking on me. It was during a faculty graduate student coffee hour, and we were just chatting in the hall, and Armen Alchian said to me, "Williams, you know the true test of whether someone understands their subject comes when he can explain it to someone who doesn't know a damn thing about it." Well, I loved the idea of being able to explain economics and potentially complex economics to ordinary people - who have no training in economics - in ways that they can understand. I look at that as one of my greater achievements.

Author: Was it difficult for you to succeed in academia having views that are not doctrinaire left wing, to say the least?

Williams: I never ran into any problems that threatened my job, but of course at Temple University, where I was for eight years, there were a number of liberals in the department, and we got into debates and discussions but nothing nasty. Fortunately, I have not encountered that at all although I could have. One 1972 job interview took me to the University of Massachusetts, and I thank God that I never took that job.