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Walter Williams on White Privilege and Other Controversies — Transcript

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0:02Hey everybody, Tom Woods here. What a
0:04thrill it is to be joined once again by
0:06the great and heroic Walter Williams.
0:09Walter Williams teaches economics at
0:11George Mason University. He is the
0:13author of 10 books including The State
0:16Against Blacks, Up from the Projects, an
0:19autobiography, and Race and Economics:
0:22How Much Can Be Blamed on
0:24Discrimination. Professor Williams is a
0:26nationally syndicated columnist. He has
0:29many many credentials he can boast.
0:31We're talking today about his new book,
0:34American Contempt for Liberty. All the
0:37titles I just mentioned will be linked
0:39on today's show notes page, which is
0:41tomwoods.com/428.
0:45Professor Williams, welcome back to the
0:47show.
0:47Well, thank you very much, Tom.
0:49Your book is called American Contempt
0:52for Liberty, one of the bluntest book
0:54titles I've ever encountered. What do
0:56you mean American Contempt for Liberty?
0:58Referring to the government, to the
0:59general public, to particular pressure
1:01groups? What do you have in mind there?
1:03Well, I'm talking about the general
1:04public.
1:05Here's where I start. I say that
1:08I am my private property. I belong to
1:11Walter Williams, and Tom Woods belongs
1:13to Tom Woods. And so, when you start off
1:16with the idea of self-ownership and and
1:18self-private property, well, certain
1:21acts become moral and certain acts are
1:23immoral. That is the reason why murder
1:25is immoral is because it violates
1:27private property. Rape is immoral
1:30because it violates private property.
1:32Theft is immoral because it violates
1:34private property. And to forcibly use
1:38one American to serve the purposes of
1:41another is also immoral. But most
1:44Americans believe that it is okay for
1:47the government to forcibly use one
1:49American to serve the purposes of
1:51another. That is, they they forcibly use
1:54you and me to serve the purposes of
1:56farmers. That is, they give farmers they
1:59make us work, give up some of our income
2:02so and and so that farmers can have crop
2:04subsidies or or to bail out banks and
2:07businesses or to give welfare payments
2:10to poor people, to give foreign aid to
2:12different countries. And so, but most
2:14Americans believe that that is okay.
2:17They find nothing wrong with the with
2:20the the government forcibly using one
2:22person to serve the purpose of another.
2:24And I might just add
2:25that the forcible use of one person to
2:27serve a purpose of another is a fairly
2:30good operational definition of slavery.
2:33Well, that's a controversial way of
2:34putting it, of course. If you were to
2:36say that, you'd be accused of gross
2:37insensitivity. Well, I'm sure you have
2:39been You're Walter Williams, after all.
2:41That's right. Now, now when I when I say
2:44that I don't believe that one American
2:47has the right to live at the expense of
2:49another American or that government
2:51should not use one American to serve the
2:54purposes of another, that does not mean
2:56that I do not believe that in helping
2:59our fellow man in need. And but I
3:01believe that helping one's fellow man in
3:03need by reaching into one's own pockets
3:06to do so, I think it's praiseworthy and
3:08laudable. Helping one's fellow man in
3:10need by reaching into somebody else's
3:13pockets to do so, I think it's worthy of
3:15condemnation. It's despicable. And
3:17matter of fact, it's just it's just
3:19simply a theft. It's a it's it's
3:21legalized theft.
3:23Your book is a collection of columns of
3:26yours from over the years, and I've been
3:29I don't want to make you feel old, but
3:30I've been reading your column since I
3:31was in high school, and it's great to
3:33have them collected in this way, and
3:34you've organized them into categories.
3:36You've got section on the Constitution,
3:38on education, on racial issues, and
3:40general economic issues, and the
3:42environment, and so on. So, it's almost
3:44anything you'd want to know about is in
3:46here. So, let's let's start with a basic
3:48economic issue, and that's the issue of
3:51government spending and debt. What's
3:54wrong with the argument that look, we've
3:56had a substantial national debt for
3:58quite some time now and there don't seem
4:01to be any real ill effects. So, people
4:04who complain about it are just a sky is
4:07falling incorrigible doomsayers and we
4:09really should disregard them.
4:10Well, I think that
4:12one of the things about national debt is
4:15just one way of concealing the activity
4:19of government. That is
4:21people say well, gee, we have to worry
4:23about the debt being imposed on future
4:25generations. Well, I don't think that
4:27that's true at all. That is if the
4:29federal government spends $4 trillion
4:31this year, well, then of necessity it
4:34must force us, you and me, to spend $4
4:38trillion
4:39less. Now, there are three ways that the
4:41government can do this. One, they can
4:44tax us to get us to spend less of what
4:46we produce. Number two, they can enter
4:49the bond market to get us to spend less
4:53of what we produce. That is and and
4:54drive up the interest rates and and and
4:57and reduce the investment activities.
5:00And then finally, they can just inflate
5:02the currency. So, the national debt
5:05really reflects current spending and a
5:07lot of people say this will be a burden
5:09on our future generations. I say, well,
5:11so what? Future generations haven't done
5:13anything for me. Why not burden them?
5:15But, the fact of the business is is that
5:18the federal government cannot spend what
5:20is produced in 2030 or 2050. They can
5:24only spend what is produced in 2015.
5:28Now, speaking of debt, of course,
5:29there's a form of debt that we read
5:31about an awful lot in the paper and that
5:32is the increasing educational debt,
5:35college debt that young people are
5:37incurring and you have a chapter in
5:38here, a section called too much college.
5:41I think people can probably anticipate
5:43what the argument is there, which I'd
5:45like to hear you reproduce, but then I'd
5:46like to hear you answer
5:48Well, look, that's easy for Walter
5:49Williams to say. He's got a PhD from, I
5:51think it's UCLA. Of course, it's easy
5:53for you to say other people don't need
5:55college. Your career was made possible
5:57by it. So, what do we mean when we say
5:58that there's too much college?
6:00Well, well, first of all, there there
6:01people in college who should not be in
6:04college.
6:04You don't say.
6:05That's right. That is It turns out that
6:09I think it's approximately 50%
6:12of incoming freshmen on colleges across
6:16the United States, they need remedial
6:19math, remedial English, and remedial
6:22writing. And so, this says that they've
6:24gotten fraudulent high school diplomas
6:27that give them the impression that
6:28they're college ready when in fact
6:30they're not college ready. So, these
6:31people should not be on college
6:33campuses.
6:34Another way of looking at it is that
6:36I've gone to the library like 10:00 in
6:38the morning, walk across the library
6:40field to the library,
6:42and I might see, you know, 10, 15 kids
6:45out there throwing Frisbee. And then I
6:48come back
6:49maybe 2 hours, 3 hours later, the same
6:52kids out there throwing throwing a
6:53Frisbee. Well, that that's that's not
6:56the purpose of college. They do better
6:59you know, having a job at McDonald's and
7:02and kind of preparing themselves for the
7:04future. And and then also,
7:07I tell people that had I gone to college
7:10right after high school,
7:12it would have been a unmitigated
7:15disaster because I was immature, I was
7:17not ready for college, and I would have
7:19just flunked out. And when I did start
7:21college, I was I was a full-grown I was
7:2425 years old having been in the army and
7:26also married. So,
7:28so I would I would take college
7:30seriously. But a lot of kids
7:33they
7:34they're not ready for college in my
7:36opinion. And and then also, I have this
7:39I I guess get this from the fact that
7:41I've been teaching for 45 years and you
7:45look at some of the the work and some of
7:47the attitudes of many students. Again,
7:50they they should be out
7:52getting a job and then maybe if they
7:54gain some maturity and a better outlook
7:57on life and then maybe they should go to
7:59college, but many to kids 18 17 18 years
8:02old they they should they should be you
8:04know getting a getting a job at
8:05McDonald's.
8:07I'm looking at the table of contents
8:09here for the education section.
8:11Let me just read four chapter titles.
8:13These are just back-to-back chapter
8:14titles for the audience for them to get
8:17a sense of what they're what they can
8:18find in your book American Contempt for
8:20Liberty. One of them is educational
8:22lunacy. Next chapter academic
8:24dishonesty. Next chapter dishonest
8:26educators and next chapter academic
8:28cesspools. You have some iconoclastic
8:32views on education. Share some of them
8:35with us.
8:36Well, one of the problems with college
8:39education is the very fact that the
8:42education schools schools of education
8:45on college campuses represent the
8:46intellectual slums of almost any college
8:49and I mean the students who
8:52take education courses are perhaps the
8:54lowest SAT scores of any other students
8:57students majoring in any other field and
8:59then also they have when they graduate
9:02and decide well maybe they want to go to
9:03law school or or go to medical school
9:05they have the lowest LSAT and lowest
9:08MCAT scores. And these people they go
9:11through college and get A's and B's and
9:12so
9:14so it suggests that
9:15that there's some
9:17something doesn't smell well in Denmark.
9:20I want to ask you if I may a few
9:22questions about the
9:24section of your book dealing with race
9:26and I wonder if first of all if it
9:27annoys you that you're a professional
9:29economist and on your professional page
9:31at GMU I think I don't know if it's
9:33still there but I remember years ago
9:34looking on your professional page and I
9:36could actually see tests that you had
9:38given or or study questions or
9:40something, and they were all extremely
9:42difficult and technical questions in
9:44economics. Does it annoy you that here
9:46you are a a PhD economist, and you can
9:48speak on all manner of questions, and
9:50yet everybody always wants to ask you
9:52about race?
9:53Well, I Well,
9:55it it it annoys me a little bit, but I I
9:57can understand it because they
10:00because my ideas on race
10:02differ
10:03in a significant degree from many other
10:06people's ideas on race, and particularly
10:07black people.
10:09And also, of course, you have written
10:10books on the subject. So, it's not like
10:12they're just saying, "Well, we have a
10:14black economist on, so we have to talk
10:15about that subject." You have written on
10:17it, but I feel a little bit guilty
10:19bringing this up, but
10:21no, no. I think that I think that that
10:24issues of race need to be discussed
10:27intelligently in our country, and they
10:29and we need to move away from
10:32the feel-good rhetoric that people use
10:35about race. And And then then there's
10:37certain things that that that many
10:40people find politically incorrect to
10:42say, but they need to be said.
10:45It seems to me that the people who say
10:46we need to have a national conversation
10:48on race really have in mind we should
10:50have a national hectoring monologue on
10:53race, and nobody should dare to
10:55contradict what's said by the the
10:57hectoring
10:59uh soliloquists uh in effect. Now, I
11:01want to ask you
11:02what your view of this currently trendy
11:05idea called white privilege is, that
11:09there's white privilege that somebody
11:10like me has that people who are
11:13non-white don't have, and that helps to
11:15account for why I'm successful and
11:17they're not.
11:19Well,
11:20I I just That was
11:21part of a subject of a of a recent
11:24column, and I and I point out that
11:28uh you know, white privilege uh can be
11:30based on on income, and the reason and
11:34the reason why is that Asian-American
11:36households have the highest median
11:38income in our country. They have $68,000
11:41and white median household income is 77
11:44uh thousand. And so, maybe we should be
11:46talking about uh Asian privilege. But, I
11:49think white privilege or privilege has
11:52become the new term for achievement.
11:55That is
11:56when people who achieve uh they're said
11:59to have privilege.
12:01And I doubt whether privilege can
12:02explain much of what we see uh anywhere.
12:06Well, I think one way to evaluate the
12:08claim would be to ask if there really is
12:11a racial hierarchy in terms of
12:13privilege, then think about what happens
12:15when it comes time to apply for college.
12:18What race would you want to
12:20pretend to be on your application? If
12:23there really were white privilege,
12:24everybody would want to pretend to be
12:26white, but nobody in his right mind
12:27wants to pretend to be white.
12:28And and you don't want to pretend to be
12:30Asian, either.
12:31Oh, you definitely, because forget it.
12:34Good luck. Uh good luck there. Professor
12:36Williams, let's pause for a moment and
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13:44It's going to be exciting.
13:46I want to read for people if I may. This
13:48is I don't think in the book, but it is
13:52just classic Walter Williams fare. And I
13:54will link to it. Today's show notes page
13:56is tomwoods.com/428,
13:58this being episode 428. We'll of course
14:00link to your book there, but
14:02I hope you'll just pardon me if I read
14:04to people. Well, pardon me, interesting
14:06choice of words here. If I read for
14:07people, your proclamation of amnesty and
14:10pardon granted to all persons of
14:12European descent. It takes just just a
14:14moment. Whereas Europeans kept my
14:17forebears in bondage some three
14:18centuries toiling without pay. Whereas
14:21Europeans ignored the human rights
14:23pledges of the Declaration of
14:24Independence and the United States
14:25Constitution. Whereas the Emancipation
14:28Proclamation, the 13th and 14th
14:30Amendments meant little more than empty
14:32words. Therefore, Americans of European
14:34ancestry are guilty of great crimes
14:37against my ancestors and their progeny.
14:39But,
14:40in the recognition Europeans themselves
14:42have been victims of various and sundry
14:44human rights violations, to wit the
14:46Norman Conquest, the Irish Potato
14:48Famine, decline of the Habsburg Dynasty,
14:51Napoleonic and Zarist adventurism, and
14:54gratuitous insults and speculations
14:56about the intelligence of Europeans of
14:58Polish descent, I, Walter E. Williams,
15:01do declare full and general amnesty and
15:03pardon to all persons of European
15:06ancestry for both their own grievances
15:08and those of their forebears against my
15:10people. Therefore, from this day
15:12forward, Americans of European ancestry
15:15can stand straight and proud knowing
15:17they are without guilt and thus obliged
15:19not to act like damn fools in their
15:22relationships with Americans of African
15:24ancestry. Signed Walter E. Williams,
15:26gracious and generous grantor. Do you
15:29have any comment looking back on that
15:31today?
15:32Well,
15:33I I said that
15:35back when I was a professor of economics
15:37at Temple University. This is in the
15:39'70s.
15:40The uh the
15:41It's that old, really?
15:43Oh, yes, yes. And
15:45no, I didn't I didn't put up a website
15:46cuz websites weren't available.
15:48Well, of course.
15:49But But anyway, it it came up because my
15:52my first year at Temple University
15:55uh the the debate in our department,
15:57economics department, is whether we
15:59should have a class on black economics
16:01because some students were demanding,
16:04black students were demanding black
16:05economics. And so, I was asking my
16:08colleagues, well, how do the demand
16:09curves and the
16:11and the supply curves slope and behave
16:13for black people as opposed to white
16:15people?
16:16And they couldn't come up with any
16:17answers. And so, during a department
16:19meeting I said I told them that if some
16:22Irish students came demanding Irish
16:25economics, Polish economics, or Italian
16:27economics, or Chinese economics, they
16:29would throw these students out of their
16:30office. It's nonsense, but because of
16:33their guilt, they would entertain the
16:35idea that of
16:36of black students demanding these ideas.
16:38So, that's during the department
16:40meeting, I just told them that I wanted
16:42to declare full and general amnesty,
16:44give them full and general amnesty uh
16:46for their own grievances and those of
16:48their forebears against my people uh so
16:50that they would so they would stop stop
16:52feeling guilty and stop acting like damn
16:54fools.
16:55And anyway, shortly after the meeting,
16:58and I said some other things to my
16:59colleagues. I had one colleague if if he
17:02was a dear friend of mine, white guy,
17:04and he told me in confidence in the
17:06hallway one day, he said, "Walter, don't
17:09think that your colleagues
17:11don't like you because you're black." He
17:13says, "People wouldn't like you even if
17:15you were white."
17:17Well, in some way that's kind of a
17:19comfort, I suppose, I suppose, right?
17:22Let Let me read a passage from page 163
17:25of your book and and get your thoughts.
17:27The fact that black parents, teachers,
17:29politicians, and civil rights
17:30organizations tolerate and make excuses
17:33for the despicable and destructive
17:35behavior of so many young blacks is a
17:38gross betrayal of the memory, struggle,
17:40sacrifice, sweat, and blood of our
17:43ancestors. The sorry and tragic state of
17:45black education is not going to be
17:47turned around until there's a change in
17:50what's acceptable and unacceptable
17:51behavior by young people. That change
17:54has to come from within the black
17:55community. Well, that's I mean, no one's
17:58allowed to say that. You're not even
18:00allowed to say that, although here you
18:01Here you go saying it.
18:02Well, well, one of the reasons I say
18:04these things because
18:06I have a rich physical endowment, and
18:08that
18:09that forestalls
18:11a lot of
18:13a fear that I might have. Then, plus, I
18:14you know, I have a concealed carry
18:16permit, as well. But, the the
18:19I I think that's absolutely true. I I
18:21think that what goes on in our schools
18:24and what goes on in many black
18:26neighborhoods, it represents a betrayal
18:29to the sacrifices in blood, sweat, and
18:32tears of
18:34of black people who fought in the civil
18:36rights movement. That is, if you if you
18:38look at what goes on in some of our
18:40schools, predominantly
18:42black schools, where teachers are
18:45assaulted,
18:46kids are fighting for one another,
18:49they're not learning, they they're
18:50saying if you speak properly, you're
18:52acting white, and all this kind of
18:53nonsense. I mean, I think that the
18:56people who died in the civil rights
18:58struggle, who are now dead, many of them
19:00they're they're old and they and they're
19:02dead, they died in the '50s or '60s,
19:05they'd be turning in their graves if
19:07they knew what was going on
19:09today. And then, also, what a lot of
19:11Americans don't know, what many
19:13Americans don't appreciate, is that many
19:15of the things that you see, that we've
19:17seen in places like Ferguson and
19:20Baltimore and New York,
19:22many of the things that you see among
19:23black people are entirely new among
19:26black people, that is. The illegitimacy
19:29rate among blacks is 72%. But, however,
19:32in in 1938,
19:35uh the illegitimacy rate among blacks
19:37was 11%.
19:39Uh today, only 1/3 of black kids live in
19:42two-parent families. Uh in 1880, as I
19:46write in my book Race and Economics, uh
19:48in 1880, uh depending on the city, 70 to
19:5280% of black kids live in two-parent
19:54families. Uh in 1925, 85% of kids in in
19:58Harlem, New York, lived in two-parent
20:00families. And so, and the the the uh the
20:03murder rate that you see, the the crime
20:06and violence that you see, is again
20:08entirely new. I grew up in the Richard
20:10Allen Housing Project in North
20:12Philadelphia, and we didn't go to bed
20:14with the sounds of gunshots. Uh matter
20:16of fact, one of the habits was that uh
20:19the people didn't lock their doors until
20:21the last person came in at night, and uh
20:24and there was far greater security. And
20:26this all this was at a time when there
20:29was far greater racial discrimination in
20:31the United States and fewer
20:32opportunities for blacks. And uh you
20:34know, I'm I'm almost 80 years old, and
20:36so I I you know, I was growing up at the
20:38time of the 40s and and 50s in in North
20:41Philadelphia, and it was entirely
20:44different. And but, most white people
20:46and people look may may most black
20:48people, they don't realize that what
20:50we're seeing today, the pathology that
20:52we're seeing in black communities, is
20:53entirely new. And so, we have to ask
20:55question, well, what might explain it?
20:58And I think a lot of it it can be
20:59explained by the uh the welfare system.
21:03Of course, the traditional explanations
21:05that we're going to be given as to why
21:08these problems exist that there's racism
21:11and discrimination and so forth are
21:13extremely unsatisfactory because of
21:14exactly the reasons you've given. Well,
21:16then why were the problems that we're
21:18seeing so much less pronounced at a time
21:20when those issues were so much more
21:23intense. So, that's why they have to dig
21:25around for institutional racism or
21:27whatever because they can't face that
21:28question. They're if there's a modern
21:31problem that we didn't have
21:33x number of years ago, there must be a
21:35modern explanation. And any modern
21:36explanation is going to implicate the
21:38very people who are the biggest
21:39loudmouths about it. So, they have to
21:41deflect and
21:42That's right.
21:42misdirect people.
21:43And some people say it's the legacy of
21:45slavery and my response to that, well,
21:47the legacy of slavery must have a way of
21:50skipping some generations.
21:52Yeah, right. All of a sudden we're
21:53feeling it even though we hadn't felt it
21:55in these in in the interim quite so so
21:57much. I remember back in the early
21:591990s,
22:00you were subbing for Rush Limbaugh one
22:03day and you made a comment about the
22:06admission practices at Harvard Medical
22:07School and you said that there was a
22:09racially disparate
22:11standards applied and that black
22:13students were being accepted who didn't
22:15have the same level of achievement that
22:17the other students had and that what
22:18this was doing was
22:20was tainting them in their careers
22:23because people would just assume that
22:24they had gotten in with lower standards
22:26and so this would make them their
22:28professional credentials suspect from
22:30now on. Well, you got taken behind the
22:33woodshed or at least
22:35verbally by the Dean of Harvard Medical
22:37School who called you a racist for
22:39saying it. So, I I was a budding young
22:42I I didn't eventually become a
22:44journalist, but I wrote when I was in
22:45college and I I called him up. I was I
22:47was at Harvard at the time and I called
22:49him up and said, you know, I just
22:51thought it might be an interesting
22:52detail that, you know, Walter Williams
22:54is black and he came back with the
22:56usual, well, he's obviously a
22:57self-hating black person and so on and
23:00and forth. So, I contacted you about
23:02this. This is so long ago, you probably
23:03don't remember, but I told you what was
23:04going on. I said, "I'm going to write an
23:06article about this." And you you offered
23:08to send a photograph of yourself. Like,
23:09you really wanted to stick it to these
23:11people.
23:12And sure enough, we we did that. So,
23:14that you know, it's at least the I do
23:16feel like these days, on the one hand,
23:19uh you get condemned and smeared if you
23:22say the wrong thing, but on the other
23:23hand, with the internet, a lot of times
23:25when people will if you write a a
23:27truth-telling article, uh not not not
23:29just on this, but on a lot of taboo
23:31subjects, you look at the comment
23:32section, and it's 90% favorable. Like,
23:35the the there's a lot of people in the
23:36country who are tired of being muzzled.
23:39And when they see somebody exercising a
23:41little bit of independent judgment, they
23:43are very happy to run to that person's
23:45defense.
23:46Oh, yes. And and I've I've had uh at
23:48when I was at Temple University, uh I've
23:51had colleagues uh come and tell me that
23:54that they support me, but they don't
23:57want to give their name.
23:59Yeah, yeah, exactly.
24:00That is they they rather do it uh you
24:02know, anonymously.
24:04Yeah. God bless America.
24:06And so, one one of my responses is that
24:08that white people need to get some
24:09backbone and stop feeling guilty about
24:13uh but on the other hand, it's unkind of
24:15me to say it the way that way because
24:17that you know, they're
24:18like if if white people say certain
24:21things, they can lose their job, they
24:22can they they can lose their promotion.
24:25And so, who am I to suggest that they
24:29that they take such a risk. You know
24:30what I mean? It's a lot of times it's
24:32just easier to remain silent. But
24:35and and it would've been easier for me,
24:36but I tell people that they they say,
24:38"Oh, Walter, you're so brave." I say,
24:40"Well, no, I'm not really brave. It's
24:42that I have a highly diversified sources
24:44of income. That is my income comes from
24:48from a number of different sources, and
24:49when your income comes from number of
24:51different sources, you can tell any two
24:53or three of them to go to hell."
24:55Yeah, there you go. There you go. Well,
24:57listen, before we wrap up, I want to ask
24:59you just one thing about the last
25:01section of your book is some
25:02miscellaneous topics. And I remember
25:05Thomas Sowell saying something along the
25:06lines that somebody can put in a bumper
25:08sticker a fallacy that would take
25:11paragraphs to refute. And that's the
25:13problem that economists face that you
25:14can come up with a dumb guy economic
25:16fallacy in five words, but it's going to
25:19take me five paragraphs to refute. So,
25:21I'm at a little bit of a competitive
25:22disadvantage. And so, just looking over
25:25uh your book, one of your chapters is
25:28is a response to the old claim, "We need
25:31people before profits." And your chapter
25:33title is called "Profits are for
25:35people." So, how do you answer that
25:37typical argument?
25:39Well, you you Well, my my response, I
25:41think, is kind of simple. You You say,
25:43"Well, look. Look at the areas of our
25:45lives where there's
25:48where there's the greatest discontent
25:50and there
25:51Excuse me. The where there's the
25:53greatest discontent and there marches
25:55and there petitions and stuff like
25:56this." Well, turns It turns out to be uh
26:00people are dissatisfied with the postal
26:03service. They're dissatisfied
26:04dissatisfied with public schools.
26:06They're dissatisfied with the motor
26:08vehicles department. Where people are
26:10most satisfied, and you never see people
26:13in the conflict, well, it's the
26:15supermarkets. It's the computer store.
26:18It's the clothing store. And what's the
26:21difference between these two areas where
26:22people are very satisfied and people who
26:25are dissatisfied, I think it's very
26:27I think it's very easy. And that is
26:30where people are Those areas of our
26:32lives where people are most dissatisfied
26:34are the nonprofit areas such as the the
26:37police, the schools, the motor vehicle
26:40department, the post office. Where
26:41they're the most satisfied are the
26:43profit-making areas where people are,
26:46you know, the owners are after profits
26:48and such as computer stores, the
26:49supermarkets, and and clothing stores.
26:52And so
26:54a uh profits force
26:56uh force the uh people who are in in
26:58charge to pay attention to the wishes of
27:01the people. When there are no profits,
27:03uh the people can keep their jobs and
27:06and not pay attention to the wishes of
27:07the people. That is if if if if a
27:10supermarket uh conducted its business
27:13the way public schools do, it would be
27:14out of business. But see, public schools
27:16know that well, gee, they have monopoly
27:19and parents don't have much choice. The
27:21same thing with the motor vehicles
27:22department and the post office. And and
27:24my by the way, the post office is
27:27becoming much better behaved since they
27:30have so much more competition nowadays.
27:33Oh, yeah, isn't that the truth? Well,
27:34the book we've been discussing is
27:36American Contempt for Liberty by our
27:37guest Walter Williams. You can check it
27:39out at tomwoods.com/428.
27:42We'll also be linking to the
27:44proclamation of amnesty and pardon and
27:46we'll link to Professor Williams'
27:48previous appearance on the program when
27:49we talked about
27:51possibly even hotter subject. We talked
27:52about secession and other things of that
27:54sort. So, check that out at
27:55tomwoods.com/428.
27:57Professor Williams, thanks so much as
27:59always for your time today.
28:00And thank you very much, Tom. Keep up
28:02the good work.
28:03All right, everybody. A couple of
28:04freebies I want to tell you about. I've
28:06just produced another free ebook for you
28:09guys and it is called Start Your Blog or
28:13Website Today: Resources for People Too
28:16Busy to Learn Programming or Design. If
28:19you've been saying to yourself that you
28:21really should start a blog, for example,
28:23then this little ebook, which costs you
28:25nothing, you don't even have to join my
28:27mailing list to get it, it really is
28:29free, will help you. It takes you
28:31step-by-step
28:32through how it's done. You'll be up and
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28:38And then beyond that, it's got all kinds
28:40of tricks and tips that I use. So, check
28:42it out at free websitebook.com.
28:46For example, it tells you how to start
28:49and build a mailing list so that people
28:51who come to your website or come to your
28:53blog will come back. You'll be able to
28:55reach them and say, "Hey, I've got more
28:56content." That's a very important way to
28:58drive traffic to your site and to drive
29:01sales if you're trying to sell
29:02something. I show you in this book how
29:04it's possible for me to say on this
29:06show, "Go ahead and subscribe to my
29:09weekly letter and get my free ebook, 14
29:12hard questions for libertarians answered
29:15by texting the word liberty to 33444."
29:19Wouldn't you like to know how to do
29:20that? Cuz I can get up and give a speech
29:22in front of a big audience. They've all
29:23got their cell phones and I can get
29:25people to join my mailing list, which I
29:27I send, you know, one email a week. And
29:29by the way, the email I send, one of the
29:31things it does it tells you every
29:32episode that's coming up in the
29:33following week. So, you can be really
29:35ahead of the game. But plus it's got my
29:37usual tips and interesting news items
29:40and so on. But I can say to people, "You
29:42can get that plus my free ebook by just
29:44texting the word liberty to 33444." Or
29:47if you're a podcaster like me, you're
29:49doing a podcast, most people are out and
29:50about when they're listening to your
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29:52computer where they can do stuff. But
29:55they've got their cell phones. You tell
29:57them to text something, they can go
29:58ahead and text it. You can build your
29:59email list and that's what drives a lot
30:01of times repeat traffic back to your
30:03site. Or even simple things like, "How
30:05do I come up with a good domain name, a
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30:09of them are taken?" I give you some tips
30:11for coming up with really great domain
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30:15I've used that have worked for me, all
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30:27that out at freewebsitebook.com.
30:31Remember, too, that the Great Shift Gold
30:34Sweepstakes ends July 13th, 2015 at
30:38midnight. So, make sure you throw your
30:41hat into the ring at tomwoods.com/gold
30:44as soon as possible. I will be
30:45announcing the winner on the show July
30:4715th, 2015. That's episode 446 and we're
30:50not going to notify the winner in
30:52advance of that.
30:54Instead, I'm going to announce the
30:56winner before anybody knows about it,
30:58including the winner himself or herself.
31:01How about that? So, it'll be exciting
31:03for everybody. You'll all be sitting
31:04there wondering who the winner is and
31:06we'll all find out together. So, that's
31:09going to be fantastic. Make sure you
31:10subscribe to the show on iTunes or
31:12Stitcher for free, of course, over at
31:14tomwoods.com.
31:16Thanks for listening, everybody. See you
31:17next week.
31:19The Tom Woods Show

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