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.
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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