On the major social and political issues of our time, economist, author, and columnist Walter Williams is one of America's most provocative thinkers. He is black, yet he opposes affirmative action. He believes that the Civil Rights Act was a major error, that the minimum wage actually creates unemployment, and that occupational and business licensure and industry regulation work against minorities and others in American business. Perhaps, most importantly, he has come to believe that it has been the welfare state that has done to black Americans what slavery could never do: destroy the black family