Free Markets In Education: Victims of Success

Economist Walter Williams argues that it is not the failures of the free market that have led to its disparagement, primarily in academia but also in K-12 education, but its successes. “Free market capitalism is disfavored by many Americans — and threatened — not because of its failure but, ironically, because of its success,” he writes. “Free market capitalism in America has been so successful in eliminating the traditional problems of mankind — such as disease, pestilence, hunger and gross poverty — that all other human problems appear both unbearable and inexcusable.”

“The desire by many Americans to eliminate these so-called unbearable and inexcusable problems has led to the call for socialism. That call includes equality of income, sex and race balance, affordable housing and medical care, orderly markets, and many other socialistic ideas.”

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