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All It Takes Is Guts
by
Walter Williams shows how government regulations hinder rather than help the disadvantaged. Williams destroys a number of prevailing social myths and explains why the nature of congressmen is not to act in the national interest.
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Hardcover, 189 pages
Published
February 27th 2018
by Regnery Publishing
(first published May 1st 1988)
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It's stunning how relevant these essays and articles from the 1980s are today. Terrorism, racism, socialism, debt, taxes, minimum wage.... It's all here, and it's all still in the news, because these 30 year old issues were not handled properly back then. Now, today, those issues are still there, but they're much worse having the added weight of 30 years of mismanagement behind them.
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Whenever you read anything by Walter E. Williams you know you're going to get a big dose of common sense. That is again the case here with All It Takes Is Guts by Walter E. Williams, a collection of some of his earlier papers on a variety of topics including minimum wage laws and their effects on black youth unemployment, taxes, racism, women's issues, financial and economic policy, our still failing education system, welfare programs, and more. They were written initially about conditions over
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You really can't go wrong with Walter Williams. This book offers some of his columns which he has written over the period of more than 25 years. His columns are short, straight to the point, lucid and sobering. They are very helpful in giving us good tools (that we would immediately see their objectivity and use) once we grasp them, and which he uses to tackle the issues at hand.
The subjects are very diverse, ranging from the application of economic theory to everyday situations, to our personal ...more
The subjects are very diverse, ranging from the application of economic theory to everyday situations, to our personal ...more
I enjoyed this book from the standpoint it gave me a clearer understanding of Walter Williams and where he stood on a multitude of issues. Principally, the socioeconomic status of black and brown people. An old school conservative, he was big on less government intervention and allowing business and the market the latitude to grow (or not) on its own. The problem is that that approach had been undertaken before and we found ourselves having to bail out those entities. Interesting perspective non
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This is a great collection of columns written by Walter Williams in the eighties. He does a great job of showing how government consistently takes money from one person to give to another. Their intentions may seem noble but they’ve failed to get results. After billions in spending on poverty programs the poverty situation hasn’t improved. The black community is worse off and we have a substantial population on multigenerational welfare. Tarries are used to benefit one group at the expense of an
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Since this was a collection of essays, the content can get a bit repetitive. It also does not get too deep so it was a quick listen and I could speed up the playback speed easily. Some of the issues outlined are quite dated as he discussed current affairs (at the time) in these essays, such as the Apartheid, but others are still highly relevant today, i.e. the public school system, economic globalisation and its impact on free market capitalism, and racial tensions. Would recommend for an altern
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A collection of editorials Mr Williams wrote. Doesn’t get super deep. Interesting (and limited) look at some 1980s history that I’ve only heard of but not learned much about (e.g. South Africa towards the end of Apartheid)
Several of his syndicated columns from the 1980s that seem to play well today. I don't agree with all of his thoughts, but, mostly, his political ideology and statistical and anecdotal evidence is solid.
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Listened on audio. This is a compilation of his newspaper articles from the early 80s, but you would think he’s written them today. It almost made me want to go back and get an economics degree! I’ll definitely be reading more of his work.
Mar 24, 2021
Jerry
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
economics,
cultural-studies
Government regulations hurt the most vulnerable and other truths that could have been written last year by Williams. Some details are dated, but the principles apply precisely to the issues we are dealing with--racism, socialism, debt, taxes, minimum wage.
Nice collection of articles from the 80s. Much of the information is still very useful.
Great collection of columns from the mid 80's
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Good book and is interesting to see that after about 40 years the game is the same.
Several of Walter Williams' columns from the mid '80s, what is amazing about them is he talks about all the same things we are still talking about today. Some things never change...
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Most are relevant today.
challenge of high standards vs low, a special advantage creates a disadvantage, min wage laws drove youth black unemployment from 10 to 50, political swaps and bad deals, women lose if feminism wins, marriage as use of each other, quotas have no success records, no Japanese role models yet achievement, welfare subsidies and social security as money to taken from one distributed to another, conflict of visions and assumptions is why people reach different conclusions viewing same info, educations
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A collection of essays written by the great Walter Williams in the 80's. Most of the essays are still relevant today, but some are outdated. Topics range from race and discrimination to liberty issues to South African apartheid to the Cold War. Collections of essays are kind of hard in books. I like most of the essays but considering they were published over many years in various news papers, he often makes the same point on the same topics over again.
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May 16, 2011
Kit
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
to-read-per,
to-read-pol-hist
Were the columns a little less repetitive, this would have been a 4 star book, and the concepts easily rate 5 stars. Mr. Williams gives straight-forward and easy-to-understand understand lessons on our most cherished yet sadly abandoned national heritage: freedom. I will certainly be looking for more from this author!
This is a collection of editorials written back in the 1980's. The issues are still making the news. Some of the suggested answers are still as relevant today as when written.
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Feb 17, 2013
Della Scott
marked it as to-read
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11713860 ...more
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11713860 ...more
I've always liked Walter Williams and the humor he adds to his essays, but these are a bit dated now. I just wish I'd read it 20 yrs ago.
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Brilliant essays from a brilliant man. This books got my mind moving toward voluntarism back in the 80's
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Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Walter E. Williams holds a B.A. in economics from California State University, Los Angeles, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from UCLA. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College and Doctor Honoris Causa en Ciencias Sociales from Universidad Franc
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Why not focus on some serious family drama? Not yours, of course, but a fictional family whose story you can follow through the generations of...
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“But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?”
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“How does something immoral, when done privately, become moral when it is done collectively? Furthermore, does legality establish morality? Slavery was legal; apartheid is legal; Stalinist, Nazi, and Maoist purges were legal. Clearly, the fact of legality does not justify these crimes. Legality, alone, cannot be the talisman of moral people.”
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