More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well

I don’t really know what I was expecting when I started reading More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well by Walter E Williams, but what I got were essentially reprints of some of Walter E Williams’s weekly columns in book format, broken down by category. Rather than in order of original publication, they were grouped by topic. But I believe the essays were all written between 1995 and 1997, which is weird because they are still incredibly relevant to today.

The book is broken down into seven categories, each tackling a specific issue from different angles. The categories are: Race and Sex, Government, Education, Environment and Health, International, Law and Society, and Potpourri. So, what does Williams have to say about each of these?

Race and Sex: Williams has nothing by contempt for the leftist policies—his words—that keep breaking down society and wreaking havoc on women and minorities. And he calls out the race hustlers who preach profit demagoguery—his words! What is Profit Demagoguery? The economically ignorant stance that governments care more for people than individuals do. This is provably false and wildly inaccurate by any metric, but people keep buying this bullshit. Except for Williams, who denounces it with proof.

Williams points out the fallacious belief that somehow, white people have a leg up in society, pointing out that up until the war on poverty—which did so very much to destroy black families—all was equal. Like, literally equal. “As far back as 1969, black males who grew up in homes where there were magazines, books, and library cards, had incomes identical to white males from similar homes and educational backgrounds.”

If you want to fix income inequality, how about you make sure the people can actually read? Not just can read but DO read. Obviously, you can’t MAKE anyone read, but parents can encourage it by setting an example. I read because both my parents were readers. And while I love the Kindle app, I would highly recommend against it when setting that example. Because the kids aren’t going to know you’re reading a book. All they see is you staring at your phone all day. Go to the library. It’s free! Teach them the value to be found in books by reading actual books in front of them.

The other part of this section was Sex. For this, Williams points out the absolute fallacy of “gender norming” in the military. Again, with proof! This topic seemed to really enrage Williams, which I get. He was a military veteran, so he has strong opinions on this, which are not incorrect and quite well stated.

He reports on women pilots who failed their courses to become fighter pilots, and how allowing them to pass even if they can’t actually do the job, is actually dangerous. Women trainees who would make fatal errors in training simulations that would get a male pilot kicked out of the program, but because it was a woman, she’d be allowed to proceed in the name of gender norming. She would then go on to actually die in a literal plane crash, that she was unprepared to handle in reality.

If you can pull your own weight, FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! And that was literally Williams point. Otherwise, quite bitching and get out of the way of someone who actually CAN do the job. Man or Woman. Passing on a subpar candidate literally makes NO ONE safe and endangers everyone. Not just her co-workers in the military, but literally weakens us as a nation.

Government: Government is force. Like, full stop. All the government can do is coerce us. That is the short summation of this chapter. But he reiterates that OUR government is extremely limited in what it is allowed to do. We the people have forgotten this, in chasing the partisan line bullshit the media is so good at drumming up. And because they don’t teach us the constitution anymore. Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution specifies what they are allowed to do:

https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

Go read it! It’s not that long, but too long to quote in its entirety here.

This entire section is spent demonstrating how Congress has repeatedly violated that One Lesson we learned last month in Henry Hazlitt’s book: “The Art of Economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate, but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists of tracing the consequences of that policy, not merely for one group, but for all groups.”

Congress doesn’t care for all groups. They care for whatever group is currently lining their pockets.

Education: The absolute failure of the American Education System is astounding. He does go into specific detail on schools that are in historically black neighborhoods, and why wouldn’t he, he was black. However, he also discusses how even schools in “white” areas are no picnic and are just as corrupt and full of failure. We are failing our kids on an international scale…at everything. I don’t believe he specifically covers charter schools, but he does go into how private schools and school choice are far more beneficial for all involved. Again, with proof.

He includes the massive failure of affirmative action laws in getting black students accepted to universities. He is not saying that black students don’t belong at Berkley or Harvard. He’s saying that insisting a student who only achieved an 800 on the SAT’s be admitted to a school where the average SAT score is 1200, for example, virtually guarantees that student is going to fail. Because they are not up to par with their peers.

Versus if they had gone to the local state school, they might have passed just fine. So how is having them fail out of Harvard better for them than passing at their local University? Sometimes it is far better to be a big fish in a small pond…like at State school…than a small fish in a big pond….like at Harvard. That’s a Malcolm Gladwell analogy, by the way…Far better to graduate locally, then to fail out at a big school because you bit off more than you could chew.

Environment and Health: Williams REALLY dislikes the EPA. And the do-gooders who insist that everything they do is better for your health. Williams points out in this section how natural catastrophes…like, say, a volcanic explosion…has done way more harm to the environment then humanity has done.

Good ideas don’t require force. And the EPA is a government agency…which leads back to government is force. And the EPA, like all government agencies, has produced their share of fraudulent reports. These fraudulent reports have produced things like the topical content from last years book, Pandora’s Lab…remember the section about Rachel Carson and Silent Spring? Pure fraud.

International: In this section he tackles Tariffs, and how enforcing tariffs hurts…Us. Historically, the only one NOT hurt by tariffs is whoever is lining the pocket of the congress critter who is sponsoring said tariff. He uses the historical example of Sugar Tariffs to outline this point in detail.

Congress would raise tariffs on imported sugar, making domestic prices rise. Domestically, we turned to corn syrup as a cheaper alternative. This then makes corn more expensive, because corn that we would have normally eaten, is instead being processed into sweetener.

He also tackles corporate welfare in this section. In the mid-1990’s, Congress used to give money to corporations like McDonald’s. So that McDonald’s could advertise overseas. I’m willing to bet that McDonald’s still receives these grants. Yep…. your tax dollars at work.

Law and Society: Throughout the book, Williams highlights the catastrophes that inevitably follow liberal policy. He gets REAL specific in this chapter. The bulk of bad legal policy seems to be the result of leftist propaganda, who then adamantly refuse to acknowledge their complicity in the fallout that inevitably occurs as a result of this propaganda.

He especially targets the “war on poverty.” I’d like to congratulate poverty for winning the war on poverty. Much like drugs won the war on drugs. “Between 1965 and 1994, Poverty Programs have cost taxpayers $5.4 TRILLION in inflation and adjusted dollars.” That’s a lot of money. Did poor people actually GET any of that money. That’s a big fat negative, Goose. That money went to pay for programs to help the poor, and administrators of those programs, but none of it actually did anything to help the poor. A big chunk went to hiring government workers to administer those policies. If you guessed that, then as Williams would say, Go to the Head of the Class.

This is true of most laws. The bulk of the money confiscated through our tax dollars accomplishes nothing more than enriching the congress critters who support those policies. And most of these government programs are not actually allowed under Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution.

Most of our tax dollars go to pay the deep state. Which is those non-elected bureaucrats who run the country, and the subcontractors they hire to do their work for them. And they wreck our lives by enforcing their own morality upon us all.

Potpourri: The last section is just one-off articles that don’t fit any one specific category. This section tackles rights vs wishes, the right to free speech, versus forcing someone into slavery by mandating health care for all…. for example.

 If you have the right to healthcare, then the doctor MUST see you…essentially forcing the doctor into slavery over your demand for free healthcare. And yes…this is an example directly from the book. See…. still highly relevant to today’s discussions.

He tackles “crazy money,” pointing out that there are families that are literally empowered to be lazy and act crazy, just to get welfare checks. We don’t expect them to do anything more than be entertaining. Basically, we treat people who are poor like animals to be taken care of, rather than them how to take care of themselves.

As Williams points out, the only way to get off the crazy train is to be willing to watch people suffer for their own bad decisions. Which the government will never do. Because they can buy votes by throwing money at the problem.

 As always, Williams’s writing is insightful, and entertaining. It gives you food for thought. And I will always recommend whatever book of his I read. Because he articulates his thoughts well and is highly readable. This book is 25 years old and remains relevant to current events.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on February 6, 2022, but is now available on Rumble or PodBean.