# Walter E. Williams on Government Intervention and Individual Freedom

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/walter-e-williams-government-intervention-individual-freedom>

**By** Walter E. Williams

**Published:** March 24, 1992

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Williams discusses his libertarian philosophy.

In this video, Walter Williams speaks to a group of law students at the University of Virginia in 1992 and gives a general overview of his libertarian beliefs, which stem from his understanding that the state is a coercive actor. In his words, "Economic planning is nothing more than the forcible superseding of somebody else's plan by the powerful elite."

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 an expert on discrimination, labor policy, regulation, and South Africa as well as a well-known columnist and the author of _South Africa's War Against Capitalism_ (1989), _The State Against Blacks_ (1982), and _More Liberty Means Less Government_ (1999).