Walter Williams on the Rise of Socialism

Rob Bluey / May 05, 2016

PHILADELPHIA—“We’re heading toward totalitarianism,” economist Walter Williams tells The Daily Signal in an interview at The Heritage Foundation’s annual Resource Bank meeting. The famed George Mason University professor says the government is gradually gaining more control over the lives of the American people. What can be done about it? Williams explains why it’s hard to change course, especially in regards to young people who embrace socialist ideas.

Rob Bluey is editor in chief of The Daily Signal, the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation. Send an email to Rob.

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walter williams thank you for joining us and thank you

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remarks to the audience he had a picture of the government moving in a more

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totalitarian or exerting more control over the lives of the american

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why do you take that view well if you if you ask the question which way are we

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americans headed tiny steps at a time are we headed towards more liberty or

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are we headed towards more government control over our lives and i think is

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unambiguously more government control over our lives and what that means is

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that as the government controls more and more allies were headed towards hotel to

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Arianism we're not there yet but we're going there a tiny subset of time

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conservatives or libertarians are those who believe in the principles of liberty

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and free enterprise limited government convince the American People that those

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principles are in fact better for them in the long run

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well it's it will it's a hard job that is there are many Americans who benefit

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from various forms of government activity that is and when I say when

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they many of our guys benefit from various forms of activity

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well they benefit from the government taking their earnings of one american

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and give it to them and so it's pretty hard sell but I think that unless we're

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able to do that then it spells doom for our country that is we're heading the

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same way

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same direction of great empires of the pass that is we're doing the kind of

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things that the Romans were doing the portuguese the spanish the French and

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the British and all those are great empires and he went down the tubes and I

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think that if we continue we're headed that way as well as you take in issues

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like poverty what do you think conservative free-market approach to

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poverty where the government isn't so controlling over over the problem

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persists in america

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think one of the great things we say about our country one I think one of the

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great things is that just because you know where person ended up in life you

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can't be sure about where he started their such mobility in our country but

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how we're losing it and just one tiny example that is one route out of poverty

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is to be able to own and operate a taxing to get into and and that's does

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not require a lot of capital but in many places their licensing laws that require

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that you pay 500 $470,000 her license and that's just the tip of the iceberg

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there many areas so if if you want to help poor people I would say look up the

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economy because one of the rather unique features of our country is that we have

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poor people who came here and became middle-class and wealthy and so we have

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to say well how can we do that today and so we need to get rid of many of the

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laws that cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder such as the minimum

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wage law Occupational Licensing laws of various kinds of regulations that cut

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off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder you're teaching undergraduate

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George Mason University and I think we've seen throughout the 2016 election

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certainly a perception that exists out there about young people in the

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infatuation with socialism and $15 minimum wage and all these other

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policies that are identical to what conservatives believe what message do

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you have for young people today what can you tell us about their thinking well I

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don't know it puzzles me the kind of young the the numbers of young people

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that are flocking to bernie is saying

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senator Bernie Sanders message of of giving out free education free this free

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event I don't know what to say but I say that it's a it's a characteristic of the

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human beings that that we have a tendency to like that the most that does

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not belong to us so power stations exploit that and I think that there is a

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bit difficult ammunition against a says thou shalt not covet that reaches that

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neighbors but but we are confident thanks so much for joining us and thanks

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very much for inviting me