Economists v. Politicians

"[Walter Williams] understood that economic processes take place against a backdrop of politics, law, and social mores and beliefs. He understood, as his long-time friend and colleague Thomas Sowell stressed, the first lesson of economics: We live in a world of scarcity, and thus we are required constantly to weigh trade-offs. In contrast, the first rule of politics is to deny that scarcity exists. In insisting that we never forget that hard choices must be made, Walter’s commentaries rained on the parade of promises from politicians and exposed the pretensions of the powerful. This led him to include moral arguments about personal responsibility and a deep commitment to liberty in his popular writings. His main argument was that human history is a story of the domination and arbitrary abuse of the powerful over the lives of ordinary individuals. What made America special was that we had found a set of formal institutions of governance and informal norms of morality that kept this power in check. Walter hoped that history would not record this period as an aberration, but rather as a critical turning point toward wider freedom. His advice to policymakers: adopt your own version of the Hippocratic oath and do no harm. Political institutions must not exhibit either domination or discrimination if progress toward greater freedom and prosperity is to be achieved" (City Journal, Dec. 2020).