Chris Navin

R.I.P. Walter Williams. From Reason:

I’m saddened to write of the death of libertarian economist Walter E. Williams. He passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 84, less than a day after teaching a class at George Mason University, where he worked for 40 years and helped transform his department into a highly respected center of free market scholars.‘

The deep injustice came first, and Williams channeled his conceptions of freedom towards the political economy. If you can get a job in a relatively free market, provide for yourself, network, learn and grow, then at least you have these pathways forwards.

What seemingly very few people can say in public:

‘Several years ago, Project Baltimore began an investigation of Baltimore’s school system. What they found was an utter disgrace. In 19 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, out of 3,804 students, only 14 of them, or less than 1%, were proficient in math.‘

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As always, many incentives created by good intentions (well-meaning idealists and do-gooders, people who want better) and less good intentions (union leaders, corrupt politicians, ideologues), can become an impediment to learned liberty,

If people have turned their high ideals into a kind of religious practice, and their religious practice into a political ‘community’ promising to help you, you’ve been warned.

Natural rot and corruption aside, such political coalitions consistently open up high idealists to ideological attack by the further Left (older Marxist or newer, more identitarian).

Outcomes not intentions-what people do, not what they say–If you don’t expect others to share in your own interests, choices, habits and character, your relationship will tend towards the shallow. Real respect is earned, with a mixture of fear and admiration.

Arnold Kling From The Library Of Economics And Liberty: ‘My Perspective On The Budget Fight’