… is from page 177 of my late, great colleague Walter Williams’s 2015 book, American Contempt for Liberty, which is a collection of many of Walter’s columns and essays; this quotation specifically is from Walter’s August 21st, 2013, syndicated column, “Progressives and Blacks”:
Progressives’ agenda calls for not only excuse-making but also dependency….
This is all a part of the progressive agenda to hook Americans, particularly black Americans, on government handouts. In future elections, they will be able to claim that anyone who campaigns on cutting taxing and spending is a racist.
DBx: Had he not died (in early December of last year) Walter would today – March 31st – have celebrated his 85th birthday.
Walter E. Williams was a great economist, a great teacher, a great friend, a great colleague, and, above all, a great man. And, as the above quotation shows, he was also quite prescient. Along with Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams was among the three most effective communicators over the past half-century, to the general public, of both sound economics and the philosophy of liberty.
That Walter is no longer of this world continues to sting. The world could have used another dozen or so years of his wit and wisdom – and those of us lucky to have known him, even more years of his counsel and friendship.
Walter, wherever you are, know that you are missed by many – sorely so – here in this mortal vale.
…..
Here’s Cafe Hayek’s Quotation of the Day from exactly one year ago.