This Black History Month, we highlight two intellectual giants with California connections who have been underappreciated for their thoughtful and unrelenting arguments for a free society.
Economist Walter E. Williams was born in Philadelphia on March 31, 1936, and raised in the Richard Allen housing projects. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at California State University, Los Angeles, and his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. Professionally, Williams served as a professor of economics at George Mason University until his death on Dec. 1, 2020.
More popularly, Williams became known to many Americans through his syndicated columns and his frequent guest hosting of the Rush Limbaugh radio program. His first book, The State Against Blacks, published in 1982, remains as relevant as ever. In it, he argues that while racial discrimination and bigotry certainly exist, “it is the ‘rules of the game’ that account for many of the economic handicaps faced by Blacks.”
Williams contended that overregulation — including occupational licensing, zoning laws, and the minimum wage — systematically discriminates against “outsiders, latecomers and those poor in resources.” His solution to these systemic barriers was to repeal such “anti-people” laws and unleash the market to maximize opportunities for all. He understood that capitalism is the greatest engine for poverty alleviation known to man: “Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.”
This insight was shared by his longtime friend and fellow economist Thomas Sowell. Born in Gastonia, North Carolina, on June 30, 1930, Sowell received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, his master’s from Columbia, and his doctorate from the University of Chicago. He taught at UCLA and other prestigious universities before ultimately settling at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Like Williams, Sowell has been a prolific public intellectual. From writing countless op-eds to dozens of books, he has dismantled economic illiteracy (Basic Economics), the arrogance of the “expert” class (The Vision of the Anointed), and misguided cultural theories (Black Rednecks and White Liberals).
Once one understands Sowell’s insights, their perspective on politics changes forever. The irrationality of politicians suddenly makes sense. “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it,” he wrote. “The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”
Sowell famously summarized the reality of public policy with a single mantra: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
Through their writings, interviews, and lectures, Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell offered clear, data-driven answers to the social and economic problems facing our nation. This month, we encourage all readers to engage with their work. You will certainly learn something.
