Prof Walter Williams: Taking money from one to give to another is immoral

Prof. Williams is one of our favorites and will be a guest on the show today at 10am. It is a crackerjack economist and he never holds back. Yesterday he wrote a column for Townhall in which he laid out why it’s immoral for the government to take money from a person who’s earned it to give it to another who hasn’t. We couldn’t agree more. Video below the fold.

Here’s an excerpt from his column.

A related moral question is: Does one American have a moral right to live at the expense of another American? To be more explicit, should Congress, through its taxing authority, give the Bank of America, Citibank, Archer Daniels Midland, farmers, dairymen, college students and poor people the right to live off of the earnings of another American? I’m guessing that only a few Americans would agree with my answer: No one should be forcibly used to serve the purposes of another American.

You might say, “Williams, if Congress makes it a law, then you should submit to being used to serve the purposes of others.”

Such a vision introduces the next moral question, namely under what conditions is it moral to initiate force and threats of force against a person who himself has not initiated force or threats against another?

He made the same comment a few weeks ago on John Stossel’s program on Fox. The video was telling and dramatic in its simplicity.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upPJ7d0PQ2I

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

9 Comments

  1. johnboy111 on June 16, 2011 at 11:09 am

    What a great guest..



  2. sammy22 on June 16, 2011 at 11:49 am

    The US prides itself as being a nation of laws. If Congress passes a law is it not immoral to disobey it? I think not.



  3. Plainvillian on June 16, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Anytime Professor Williams speaks or writes, wisdom is dispensed.? Of course since he attacks Mr. Obama’s policies, he must be a racist!
    Sammy, given the Weiner debacle, somehow today is not the day I’d be suggesting that Congress is a source of moral authority .? Perhaps most people have a moral compass with a just a bit higher point of reference than Liberals.



  4. winnie888 on June 17, 2011 at 4:51 am

    @sammy…congress passes laws that people find objectionable all the time (abortion is legal the last time I checked).? There are many instances where certain behavior is permissible by law yet people decline to participate in that kind of behavior because it is contrary to their moral code.? If you’re suggesting that Congress legislates morality, I am curious what you got out of this most recent scandal.
    Left to our own devices, we Americans are incredibly generous without Congress passing legislation to tip us over and shake the change from our pockets.? It shows how little our elected officials actually think of their constituents that they continue to rob us blind for their feel-good legislation.? So much of it will be unsustainable in the end, anyway.? They’re myopic if they believe otherwise.



  5. Lynn on June 17, 2011 at 8:10 am

    Had to miss the show yesterday, was in Boston all day. This is one Podcast I will have to hear. Love Prof Williams. Just goes to show, you should never miss Sound Off CT.



  6. sammy22 on June 17, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    Prof. Williams dragged morality into the issue of Congress making laws. People can be immoral and still pass laws that we are obliged to follow. Disobeying a law, not simply disagreeing with it, is by definition illegal and has consequences, n’est pas?



  7. winnie888 on June 18, 2011 at 5:42 am

    Yes, immoral people pass law all the time not just at the federal but the state level as well.? But if one goes with my previous example (abortion), how does one break the law by disobeying it?? As we speak, doctors are still in a position of declining to offer abortion services.? Are they disobeying the law by not offering that service on their menu?? In many cases disagreement with a law leads to what you’re calling disobeying the law.
    I suppose that, in the end, many people choose to be judged by their creator and not a fickle congress which passes laws and then oftentimes forgets to follow the laws they’ve passed.



  8. David R on June 19, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    I hope he doesn’t see this in absolute terms. For example: education, highways, police protection etc, all mean taking from one group for the benefit of others, especially when we have a progressive income tax.? A highly educated work force is ultimately beneficial to all of us, so why not help pay for students’ university education? We can’t compete with China or India for that matter, if we don’t make it a national priority to do so. RE. ADM and corporate welfare: I think he’s got a good case.



  9. sammy22 on June 19, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    Generalizations, like what prof. williams made, can be shot full of holes. Even Orwell remarked that not all “things/animals” are equal.



Walter Williams

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