One of My Heros

I use to believe that the minimum wage could actually help people until I took economics. I use to believe that politicians were good people and did everything that helped everyone. I use to think many things until I was introduced to Dr. Walter E Williams. Dr. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. Although, I have never met Dr. Williams I have been influenced by his ideas along with other intellectuals. Dr. Williams's excellence comes from the fact that he is able to take complex ideas and explain them in a way that anyone can understand. One of his professors Armen Alchian (an economist from UCLA) explained that the true way you know if you really know something is if you can "explain it to someone who doesn't know a darn thing about it". This concept is clearly shown in his weekly syndicated column and through other writings of his.

The first time I saw Dr. Williams as on Friday February 9, 2007 on Kudlow and Company. I remember listening to him and thinking this is a smart man. Sure enough I did some searching online and I found an interview with him via Wikipedia. From this point on I began reading his work and became introduced to other intellectuals such as Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, along with many others. Clearly, this one man introduced me not only to economics but to a different way of thinking. I would regard Friedman and Williams as libertarians and Sowell as a conservative. Although, Sowell does favor some libertarian ideas. Williams did a one hour podcast interview on EconTalk (excellent program) hosted by Russ Roberts where he talked about starting out as an economist and why he truly believes what he believes. I posted the link to that interview below. The only critique I have with Dr. Williams is that he tends to repeat the same ideas over and over. This in a way is good because he is consistent and doesn’t flip flop on his ideas but can get old at some points. Still I truly regard him as an important person in shaping my intellectual journey. My point is that it is interesting how one person can lead you down a path of different ideas and people.

Williams on EconTalk:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2006/10/walter_williams.html