# Walter E. Williams on the Decline of Morality in Society

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/walter-e-williams-decline-morality-society>

**By** Walter E. Williams

**Published:** August 4, 1994

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In this video from a 1994 Atlas Economic Research Foundation event, economist and columnist Walter E. Williams talks about the coercive power of government and its role in undermining social moral priorities. Williams says that this happens when government lumps trivial offenses (he uses an example of Virginia residents being fined for not recycling) with barbaric ones.

Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is a well-known columnist and the author of _South Africa's War Against Capitalism_ (1989), _The State Against Blacks_ (1982), _Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks_ (1995), and _More Liberty Means Less Government_ (1999).