David Lay Williams
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laywilliams.bsky.social
David Lay Williams
@laywilliams.bsky.social
7.5K followers 850 following 1.4K posts
Political theorist at DePaul and author of The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx (Princeton, 2024). Essays in NY Times, Washington Post, Time, Bloomberg, etc. Jazz Guitar, New York Mets.
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David Lay Williams @laywilliams.bsky.social · Sep 3
After a decade's labor, it is finally book-release day for "The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx." I'm both relieved and excited to see this day arrive. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Greatest of All Plagues
How the great political thinkers have persistently warned against the dangers of economic inequality
press.princeton.edu
laywilliams.bsky.social
We have built an entire economy based on serving the richest amongst us. It's not sustainable, much less just.
The Middle Class Is Buckling Under Almost Five Years of Persistent Inflation
Workers are growing tired of an economy in which everything seems to get more expensive.
www.wsj.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:57 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
Not surprising, but yes. Share with those for whom this is not obvious.
us.theconversation.com The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 11h
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
davidbatherwoods.bsky.social
It’s publication day! Spread the word. The perfect Christmas gift for the pessimist in your life.
November 18, 2025 at 9:24 AM
laywilliams.bsky.social
This was a fantastic discussion of how our understanding of economic inequality has evolved throughout history. Was honored to participate alongside so many distinguished folks!
stoneeconucl.bsky.social The Stone Centre at UCL @stoneeconucl.bsky.social · 9d
The Stone Centre Inequality Dialogue recap & full replay are now live. Huge thanks to @brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social & @annastansbury.bsky.social for your contributions & to all who joined us. Recap: bit.ly/Dialogue-recap
Stone centre online dialogue screenshot
November 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
laywilliams.bsky.social
What better time to celebrate the amazing contributions of immigrants to American culture? Come join me, @jgordonwright.com, @jbsinger.bsky.social, and the @chicagojazzdads.com Thursday night at Evanston Pour.
November 17, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
lefebvrealex.bsky.social
"It takes a Straussian to catch a Straussian."

In case you missed it, here's my LARB review of @lkatfield.bsky.social terrific new book, Furious Minds, published by @princetonupress.bsky.social.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-mo...
A Mole in MAGA’s Midst | Los Angeles Review of Books
Alexandre Lefebvre reads “Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right” by Laura K. Field.
lareviewofbooks.org
November 17, 2025 at 7:51 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
What better time to celebrate the amazing contributions of immigrants to American culture? Come join me, @jgordonwright.com, @jbsinger.bsky.social, and the @chicagojazzdads.com Thursday night at Evanston Pour.
November 17, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
ebrandom.bsky.social
Noah Webster: "An equality of property, with a necessity of alienation constantly operating to destroy combinations of powerful families, is the very soul of a republic."
ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The system of the great Montesquieu will ever be erroneous till the words property or lands in fee simple are substituted for virtue, through-out his Spirit of Laws. Virtue, patriotism, or love of country never was and never will be, till mens' natures are changed, a fixed, permanent principle and support of government. An equality of property, with a necessity of alienation constantly operating to destroy combina-tions of powerful families, is the very soul of a republic. While this continues, the people will inevitably possess both power and freedom; when this is lost, power departs, liberty expires, and a commonwealth will inevitably assume some other form. All the rest - "liberty of the press, trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus writ, even Magna Charta itself" - though no doubt "palladia of freedom," were all "inferior considerations when compared with a general distribution of real property among every class of people... Let the people have property and they The liberties of America, therefore, and will have power. her forms of government, stand on the broadest basis." Abstract - is unreal virtue - absolutely disinterested love of country and has nothing to do with the matter. 51
November 17, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
laywilliams.bsky.social
This showed up in the other place. I'm amused!
November 14, 2025 at 4:14 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
This showed up in the other place. I'm amused!
November 14, 2025 at 4:14 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
"Three Key Takeaways" from the outstanding @stoneeconucl.bsky.social dialogue on inequality in the history of economic and political thought. With @brankomilan.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social, and @undercoverhist.bsky.social.
Stone Centre Online Inequality Dialogue: Three key takeaways
The discussion centred on the tension between philosophical and economic approaches to inequality, and the shift from historical concerns to modern data-driven analysis.
www.stone-econ.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
annastansbury.bsky.social
I *highly* recommend @brankomilan.bsky.social and @laywilliams.bsky.social superb books on the history of thought on economic inequality.

And if you want to see them discussing these topics, with @undercoverhist.bsky.social @johncassidysays.bsky.social and myself, video below.
stoneeconucl.bsky.social The Stone Centre at UCL @stoneeconucl.bsky.social · 9d
The Stone Centre Inequality Dialogue recap & full replay are now live. Huge thanks to @brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social & @annastansbury.bsky.social for your contributions & to all who joined us. Recap: bit.ly/Dialogue-recap
Stone centre online dialogue screenshot
November 12, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
johncassidysays.bsky.social
Calling anyone interested in inequality and why so many economists ignored it for so long!

Watch here for the illuminating thoughts of @brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social,
@undercoverhist.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social

Thanks to Wendy Carlin for asking me to moderate.
stoneeconucl.bsky.social The Stone Centre at UCL @stoneeconucl.bsky.social · 9d
The Stone Centre Inequality Dialogue recap & full replay are now live. Huge thanks to @brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social & @annastansbury.bsky.social for your contributions & to all who joined us. Recap: bit.ly/Dialogue-recap
Stone centre online dialogue screenshot
November 12, 2025 at 6:07 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
This panel discussion of my and @brankomilan.bsky.social’s books was a real pleasure. Thanks so much to all who made it possible!
stoneeconucl.bsky.social The Stone Centre at UCL @stoneeconucl.bsky.social · 9d
The Stone Centre Inequality Dialogue recap & full replay are now live. Huge thanks to @brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social & @annastansbury.bsky.social for your contributions & to all who joined us. Recap: bit.ly/Dialogue-recap
Stone centre online dialogue screenshot
November 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
This is absolutely grounded in Scripture, but also prevalent in much of the ancient world, as Aristotle discusses in the Politics. I address this in some depth in the Greatest of All Plagues.
davidgraeberinst.bsky.social David Graeber Institute @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social · 10d
If you talk about forgiving or cancelling debts nowadays, you may face a variety of insults from conservatives

But it is something built into Biblical law. Maybe those conservatives need to read a book about the history of Debt.
"Nehemiah quickly found himself confronted with a social crisis. All around him, impoverished peasants were unable to pay their taxes; creditors were carrying off the children of the poor. . His first response was to issue a classic Babylonian-style "clean slate" edict-having himself been born in Babylon, he was clearly familiar with the general principle. All non-commercial debts were to be forgiven. Maximum interest rates were set. At the same time, though, Nehemiah managed to locate, revise, and reissue much older Jewish laws, now preserved in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus, which in certain ways went even further, by institutionalizing the principle. The most famous of these is the Law of Jubilee: a law that stipulated that all debts would be automatically cancelled "in the Sabbath year" (that is, after seven years had passed), and that all who languished in bondage owing to such debts would be released." . - David Graeber (Page 81/82 of Debt: First 5000 Years)
November 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
Thanks, Alex! And I’d love to see your daughter’s paper!
lefebvrealex.bsky.social Alex Lefebvre @lefebvrealex.bsky.social · 10d
Love this book. And now my daughter is using it for her Year 12 English project on White Lotus and Rousseau's Second Discourse.

Fun for the whole family! Thanks @laywilliams.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 1:30 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
Look what just arrived, @lkatfield.bsky.social! Looking forward to diving in!
November 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
lkatfield.bsky.social
Today at 4pm! Join @libankerdc.bsky.social, Tim Shenk, Matthew Dallek and I to discuss FURIOUS MINDS at GW's Elliott School.

@illsp.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

Register here:

lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/qjdn8...
Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, Book Launch and Roundtable
Donald Trump is not a big thinker, but his 2016 presidential victory presented a grand opportunity for people who are, and it set off a radicalization and reconfiguration of the American conservative ...
lp.constantcontactpages.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
> @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 11:55 AM
laywilliams.bsky.social
Who needs real friends so long as we have AI? (At the Davis L Station in Evanston.)
November 8, 2025 at 2:39 PM
laywilliams.bsky.social
We’ve tried extreme inequality, but why not try hyper-, super-, turbo-extreme inequality? What could go wrong?
Musk Wins $1 Trillion Pay Package, Creating Split Screen on Wealth in America
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
jonathancohn.bsky.social
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.

www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
jonseidel.bsky.social
#BREAKING U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in Chicago is entering a preliminary injunction governing the use of force against protesters and journalists.
jonseidel.bsky.social Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 15d
Ellis, apparently wrapping up, is quoting George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and others.
November 6, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by David Lay Williams
libankerdc.bsky.social
The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout:
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History
libankerdc.bsky.social Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 16d
Humanities where the cool jobs at
November 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM