I don't think I am missing the point at all. The reparations plan as I articlate it is fair and could gain wide support from African Americans, liberal whites, fair minded conservatives, and more. The plan may not win the day this time, but this is the best approach to reparations out there. Can we get a majority of people for a plan like this? Certainly, especially if it is explained well.
You misunderstand the legal basis for reparations as I see it and that leads you to a poorly formed conclusion. It has nothing at all to do with being a discriminated black in the USA in the century or more after the civil war. We have policies in place to address those problems, though they may by poorly thought out and we may disagree with them, that issue has been and will continue to be addressed independent of a slave reparations matter.
Verification isn't impossible and like I said, needs only to be done once. What I outlined is doable, if not easy. Like I said, a first cut can be done easily with immigration records alone.
Reparations, as I see it, isn't deserved by every black american, but only by desendants of slaves (actually only deserved by actual slaves but since we can't pay them, we can extend a benefit to their descendants). I would only support a plan that benefits this discrete class, since that's the only way that reparations ('amends') is logical and moral.
This is distinct from extending a benefit to address racism and bigotry, which may rightfully be extended to all members of a racial or cultural class.
There is no liberalspeak involved. There IS guilt on the part of the government that ENDORSED a racist and morally reprehensible policy of humans being legally considered less than human and in fact, the propery of another human being.
This wouldn't even be an issue if the government didn't institutionally support the convention of slavery. Clearly, it did! Denying that is absurd and is one of the things that has kept Republicans from making inroads with minorities, especially blacks.
You misplace the emphasis - this has less to do with society being collectively guilty and more to do with the US Government as a specific entity being respobnsible for the practice, which unquestionably it was.
Reparations has a sound legal, moral, and historical precedent - the establishment of the Indian Reservation system and reparations to interned Japanese americans come to mind.
As for the example you gave of black americans who are wealthy, asking if it is fair that they, if descended from slaves, should get the full benefit of Tax Amnesty as reparations, the answer is clearly YES, and of course it is fair. In fact, it's the definition of fair.
Think of this less as a social program to be kind to black folks, and more of a targeted policy to make amends of an institutional wrong. Regardless of the financial status of the person today, the wrong was still done to their ancestors and reparations are entirely fair.
We don't need *any* approach for reparations. It's a lousy idea in the first place. It's like coming up with a humane approach to infanticide.
There is no liberalspeak involved. There IS guilt on the part of the government that ENDORSED a racist and morally reprehensible policy of humans being legally considered less than human and in fact, the propery of another human being. This wouldn't even be an issue if the government didn't institutionally support the convention of slavery. Clearly, it did!
And the government stopped slavery with the blood of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The reparations were paid on the battlefields of the Civil War, something Alan Keyes used to say, before he started pandering.
Besides, there was also government discrimination against anybody who wasn't a white Protestant male in this country -- there were anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, anti-women, anti-Hispanic policies in this country. And once you open the door on reparations, all the rest of those folks can make their cases as well, and get out of paying taxes.
And you also fail to note the ramifications of your scheme. You think race relations are bad now? Wait until non-black people are paying all the taxes in the country, while black people, including millionaires, get a free ride for two generations. You and Keyes' idea also fails to note that the actual poor blacks in this country don't pay income tax, so they will get no reparations out of this. So the reparations would be paid to those who have already been successful enough to pay taxes, while the poor don't get reparations. Do you think Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will be okay with that? No, so those people will have to be compensated as well.
As for the rest of your post, it's frankly all liberal nonsense. If you want to feel guilty over something that happened 140 years ago, why don't you go ahead and give all your paychecks to any descendants of slaves that you see. But leave the rest of us out of it.