Good Intentions 1of3 Introduction and Public Schools with Walter Williams

Walter Williams' PBS documentary Good Intentions based on his book, The State Against Blacks (1982). The documentary was very controversial at the time it was released and led to many animosities and even threats of murder.

In Good Intentions, Dr. Williams examines the failure of the war on poverty and the devastating effect of well meaning government policies on blacks asserting that the state harms people in the U.S. more than it helps them. He shows how government anti-poverty programs have often locked people into poverty making the points that:

- being forced to attend 3rd rate public schools leave students unprepared for working life
- minimum wages prevent young people from obtaining jobs at an early age
- licensing and labor laws have had the effect of restricting entrance of blacks into the skilled trades and unions
- the welfare system creates perverse incentives for the poor to make bad choices they otherwise would not

Dr. Williams presents the following solutions to these problems:

Failing Public Schools - Give parents greater control over their children's education by setting up a tuition tax credit or voucher system to broaden competition in turn revitalizing both public and non-public schools

Minimum Wages - Remove the minimum wage from youngsters to give more young people the chance to learn the world of work at an early age instead spending their free time idle an possibly falling into the habits of the street

Restrictive Labor Laws, Jobs Programs - Eliminate government roadblocks that prevent new entrepreneurs from starting their own business

Welfare Programs - Enact a compassionate welfare system such as a negative income tax which would remove dependency and dis-incentives for the poor to get themselves out of poverty

Scholars interviewed in the documentary include Donald Eberle, Charles Murray, and George Gilder.

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1r-r6iLBEI&feature=channel_page
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DS0XXFdyfI&feature=channel_page
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqMuLNWL_Qo&feature=channel_page

Playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?pi=0&ps=20&sf=&sa=0&sq=&a...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Walter
• Williams
• Good
• Intentions
• Documentary
• Economics
• War
• Poverty
• Welfare
• Negative
• Income
• Tax
• Public
• Private
• School
• Minimum
• Wage
• Licensing
• Labor
• Laws
• Regulations
• Davis
• Bacon
• Act
• Libertarian
• Freedom
• Liberty
• Martin
• Luther
• King
• Charles
• Murray
• George
• Gilder
• AFDC
• Civil
• Rights
• Movement
• Teachers
• Discrimination
• Ivy
• Leaf
• Unemployment
• Wedlock
• Crime
• Government
• Richard
• Allen
• Project
• Philadelphia
• vouchers
• tuition
• credit
• choice
• PBS
• Blacks
• African
• Americans
• Amagin
• Free
• to
• Choose
• Media
• Bob
• Chitester

[skinnyman1423]

public education was started to create factory workers, it is repetitive and perfectly suited for someone with down syndrome, the no child left behind act has furthered the retardation of Americans in the lower and middle class socioeconomic sectors. Dr. Williams makes many good points but focuses primarily on African American youths when it is all races that suffer for the incompetence of the public education system

[clintnorthwoods]

Walter Williams is one of my favorite people in the history of the world. reading or listening to him ( and his good friend Thomas Sowell ), you not only learn alot, but its very enjoyable learning,...it makes one`s mind work like like a super-charged engine.

[AndroidPolitician]

@IBloodSweatTears

I'm not sure about prior but from the 50s to the 70s capital was forced to stay in the country because of Bretton Woods.

[IBloodSweatTears]

@AndroidPolitician Well... That's false. We were on the standard during the depression..... You can't force capital to stay in 1 place in a free market economy. So thats untrue.

[AndroidPolitician]

@IBloodSweatTears

I think that's the point, capital had to stay in the US after WWII because of Bretton Woods, incentives were irrelevant because it just forced to stay.

[OnlyAPawn1970]

I like Williams.I read his columns.Very intelligent.

[IBloodSweatTears]

@AndroidPolitician Mmmmm, I disagree on that point. During WWII & Post WWII, The U.S had the highest wages in the world & was producing the most high quality & cheapest stuff. So I wouldn't say the biggest incentive for capital is low wages.

I think you you had a competitive regulatory & tax code, those are the biggest incentives to invite capitol into a country.

But Obama has run out of idea's, I saw him up there talking about insourcing, but he is just putting on a show like he has a plan...

[AndroidPolitician]

@IBloodSweatTears

Yeah Obana was recently talking about "insourcing" through incentives which is kind of silly because the biggest incentive for capital is having a massive low wage workforce.

[IBloodSweatTears]

@AndroidPolitician And continued into the 90's with horrible trade agreements like NAFTA.

Repeal of Glass-Steagall

Not to mention the huge business income tax's & personal income tax's.

[Ravengaurd6]

@AndroidPolitician capital control can be done, as long as it is reasonably done. these type of things can be easily corrupted,

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ravengaurd6

True it was built on an unsound system but the effects of capital restrictions were spectacular and there's no reason why it can't be done again.

Well growth and prosperity in cities was historically done in a time when capital movement was non-existent but now that it's faster than ever that would be the cause of the problems of joblessness.

[Ravengaurd6]

@AndroidPolitician That at it's best is weak economic structuring. The problem with that is controls of capital were always weak to market fluctuations and were made necessary by the Keynesian market bubble. (it's ironic how all of his system play into each others faults). You can't successfully condemn any given sector of a populace to a specific economic structure through force because markets shift too much for an agency to appropriate actions. the issue is how growth comes to the city.