Talk:Walter Block

Fact-checking with Dr. Block

I was curious about the Business Week claim, as well as the correctness of the disputed bit about his citizenship, so, as I mentioned above, I emailed Walter Block and asked him to settle these questions. Please find our correspondence below:

From: Dick Clark <cro..@gm...>	Mailed-By: gmail.com
To: Walter Block <wb...@ya..>
Date: Dec 16, 2005 10:08 AM
Subject: Business Week

Walter,

Excuse the inquiry, but, for the purposes of Wikipedia, may I ask you whether or not you have 
ever worked for Business Week? There is an individual who is claiming that you did, and I am 
trying to either substantiate or debunk his position.

Kind regards,

Dick Clark

Auburn District Chairman, Libertarian Party of Alabama
http://www.auburn.edu/libertarian 
------
From: Walter Block <wb...@ya...>	Signed-By: yahoo.com | Mailed-By: yahoo.com
To: Dick Clark <cr..@gm...>
Date: Dec 16, 2005 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: Business Week

I did indeed work for BW. Here's an entry on my cv:

6/74-8/76 Consulting economist for Tax Foundation,
Business Week Magazine, Community Housing Improvement
Program, Coalition to Save New York, Charles Koch
Fellowship

I even wrote an article for them on Austro
libertarianism:

Block, Walter. 1974. “The Austrian School's advice:
'Hands off!” Business Week Magazine, 3 August, pp.
40-41.

It's got a picture of Murray, Izzy and Walter Grinder.

who claimed that I worked for BW?
------
From: Dick Clark <cro...@gm...>	Mailed-By: gmail.com
To: Walter Block <wb...@ya...>
Date: Dec 16, 2005 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: Business Week

Walter,

A fellow who claims to be a former student of yours named Sean C. Marinara was the provider of 
that information. He says that he studied with under you at Holy Cross. When he first began 
editing your entry and Lew Rockwell's entry on Wikipedia, he initially claimed to be a colleague 
of yours, then claimed to be you, and is now giving us the above name. He is very angry with me 
and other editors over our removal of some poorly worded and sourced additions of his to the Lew 
Rockwell entry. He inserted the following in Lew's blurb:

"CRITICISM: Although this true statement may be deleted, I will make it anway. Rockwell has 
been identified as a racist and anti-semite by the Southern Poverty Law Center."

Now, I would say that the SPLC makes some pretty outrageous claims designed to bolster their 
subscription numbers for their Intelligence publication, but this particular claim about Lew has 
on Wikipedia been an oft-submitted and oft-debated one. Wikipedia policy requires that 
contributions (particularly controversial ones) be sourced for easy verification, and, thus far, 
no sources have been cited in which the SPLC directly labels Lew with the "racist" or "anti-
semite" epithets. Thus Mr. Marinara's contributions have been removed in many cases for lack 
of a source.

I was personally suspect of his contributions to your article, which is why I emailed you with 
regards to the Business Week assertion. There was no reason why that tidbit seemed obviously 
wrong, but without sourcing it wasn't suitable for wikipedia inclusion. Your c.v. will serve 
nicely as a source for that.

There was also a question as to whether or not you had been granted Canadian citizenship, with 
some asserting that you may have received such on 27 November 1991, and others vehemently 
denying that you were a citizen of any country other than the US. If you could enlighten me on 
this, that would be most helpful as well.

Thank you for your speedy reply to my previous message!

In Liberty,

Dick Clark
------
From: Walter Block <wb...@yah...>	Signed-By: yahoo.com | Mailed-By: yahoo.com
To: Dick Clark <cro...@gm...>
Cc: mb..@sha...
Date: Dec 16, 2005 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: Business Week

Dear Dick:

I am a Canadian citizen, and also a US citizen. I don't remember the date. My wife might, so 
I'm copying her on this.

Best regards,

Walter
------
From: Walter Block <wb...@ya...>	Signed-By: yahoo.com | Mailed-By: yahoo.com
To: Mary Beth Block <mb...@sh...>
Cc: cro...@gm...
Date: Dec 16, 2005 10:51 PM
Subject: RE: Business Week

thanks.

Mary Beth Block <mb..@s...> wrote:

> Yes, Walter, I checked and Nov. 27, 1991, was the
> date you became a Canadian
> citizen.

Request for Comments

There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person#RfC: Religion infobox entries for individuals that have no religion.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 17:57, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Women are not also whites?

This is obviously insensible. Include an entire quote and remove this:

“Block asserted that blacks and women were paid less than whites because they are ‘less productive’.” Nicmart (talk) 01:56, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

Libertarians for Trump

Block was an advocate for Trump. This should be mentioned. Nicmart (talk) 01:57, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

Israel

There's nothing in the entry about Block's very muscular defense of Israel's war on Palestinians which has caused some of his libertarian allies to disassociate and attack him. In particular, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, who blasted him in an "open letter" on the Mises Institute site. Another Mises Institute eminento, Thomas J. DiLorenzo, also savaged him on the same site. Block responded to Hoppe. Nicmart (talk) 05:47, 20 September 2024 (UTC)