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Reparations: Another Approach
American Thinker.com ^ | January 6, 2022 | Jim Dillon

Posted on 01/06/2022 2:44:26 AM PST by Kaslin

Proposals for reparations to the descendants of slaves have been impractical and unfair. The payers are not the guilty parties, the payees are not the victims, and there seems to be no sensible basis for calculating the debt.

Here's a suggested plan that has a rational basis and that pulls reparations from existing resources with only modest damage to the national fisc.

Those with an appetite for reparations are salivating at the prospect of serious attention in Congress. Earlier this year, Bill H.R. 40 , which would create a commission to study and recommend legislative action on reparations, was passed out of the House Judiciary committee on a party-line vote.

Despite this renewed enthusiasm for reparations, there are reasons for skepticism about any proposal. First, reparations that the nation can afford will never satisfy the more zealous advocates. Second, there is no assurance that wealth alone, “without the capacity to generate wealth, to start a business, to effectively take risks, to save and accumulate within their families…” will have an enduring impact on the cycle of Black urban poverty. (Glenn Loury, quoted here) For those still seeking a repast of reparations, the following proposal, albeit eccentric, is sweet and savory in small portions.

Reparations for What?

The major purpose of reparations is to compensate injured victims. The hypothetical impact of slavery in subsequent generations, an unknown and incalculable injury of a sort unrecognized at common law, is not compensable under any accepted legal theory.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 01/06/2022 2:44:26 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Reparations have already been paid, quietly, and without fanfare, in the form of Affirmative Action programs.

If not reparations, what is the point of Affirmative Action?


2 posted on 01/06/2022 2:55:57 AM PST by Ueriah
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To: Kaslin

Best line in the whole thing “ if this doesn’t sooth those seeking reparations, at least it will sooth the guilty feeling whites. “


3 posted on 01/06/2022 3:00:17 AM PST by Ikeon (Ill try not to be mean , if you put an effort into not being stupid.)
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To: Kaslin

The english idea of “tainted blood” was deliberately left out of the constitution. This was where relatives of a criminal could be held accountable.

Reparations is a tainted blood concept. If this is instituted, then, in like kind, we can go after families if you’re a crime victim. E.g., if your street thug can’t afford your hospital bills, someone in their family probably can.

Once the gov allows the non directly-responsible accountable, then the non directly-responsible are accountable.

Thanks to genealogy tools, and the fact that everybody is pretty much related to everybody in some way, just tie your case to your pet billionaire.


4 posted on 01/06/2022 3:23:40 AM PST by fruser1
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To: Kaslin

I am in no way justifying slavery or diminishing the suffering of those forced into bondage but if it were not for the existence of slavery, the modern day descendants of slaves (potential beneficiaries of reparations) would not even be alive today. They never would have been born since it is incredibly unlikely that their ancestors would have ever met and procreated.

We recognize slavery as a terrible thing but many, many people owe their very lives to the fact that it existed. What is the dollar value of a human life and should that be deducted from any “reparations” ? I don’t know the answer but on a reparations balance sheet shouldn’t we look at both the positive and negative outcomes of slavery ??


5 posted on 01/06/2022 3:54:55 AM PST by XRdsRev (Justice for Bernell Trammell, Trump supporter, murdered in 2020)
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To: Kaslin

Give them all the money they demand. Within a year all that money will be gone. They will spend it all and then come back demanding more. Remember reading stories of people who win the lottery and with in a short time all the money is gone and they are living in a used trailer somewhere? Same thing.


6 posted on 01/06/2022 4:00:36 AM PST by Singermom
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To: XRdsRev
I am in no way justifying slavery or diminishing the suffering of those forced into bondage but if it were not for the existence of slavery, the modern day descendants of slaves (potential beneficiaries of reparations) would not even be alive today. They never would have been born since it is incredibly unlikely that their ancestors would have ever met and procreated.

It is very likely their potential parents would simply have been killed in Africa, or in the killing fields of Brazil. Most African slave in the Atlantic trade were sold to Brazil, where they were not allowed to procreate, and were simply worked to death. It was cheaper to buy new slaves than to raise new slaves.

If they were not sold in the Atlantic slave trade, they probalbly would have been killed or sold in the Islamic slave trade. Most of those slaves were not allowed to procreate either. Most of the males were castrated; most females children were killed.

7 posted on 01/06/2022 4:05:38 AM PST by marktwain (Amazing people can read a persons entire personality and character from one photograph.)
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To: Kaslin

How about we just let them pay zero income tax for 10 years.


8 posted on 01/06/2022 4:13:39 AM PST by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: All

If they renounce their citizenship and leave America for ever than I say give them the money. If America isn’t that bad and they would rather say than they don’t need reparations


9 posted on 01/06/2022 4:25:06 AM PST by escapefromboston (Free Chauvin)
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To: Singermom

“Give them all the money they demand. Within a year all that money will be gone”

An interesting experiment would be for a private individual or organization to give “reparations” to a few people that think they deserve it, and then check back later and see whether it improved their lives.


10 posted on 01/06/2022 4:42:48 AM PST by cymbeline
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To: Kaslin

I fully support reparations!

Where do i send my $0.02?


11 posted on 01/06/2022 4:58:37 AM PST by utax
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To: marktwain

Walter Williams once said he benefitted from slavery in that he was lucky enough to be born here instead of some african $hithole because his ancestors were brought here as slaves.


12 posted on 01/06/2022 5:04:42 AM PST by wny ( )
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To: Kaslin
...there seems to be no sensible basis for calculating the debt.

What

DEBT???


13 posted on 01/06/2022 5:06:27 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Kaslin

Hey Glenn!

My dad started with nothing. My mom worked two jobs.

I’m just a poor schmuck that had no ‘slave’ background, yet I was a disadvantaged as any black can claim.

To what can I point that explains my ‘success’?

My WHITENESS?

GMAFB!


14 posted on 01/06/2022 5:10:19 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Singermom

Money’s no good unless it is spent.


15 posted on 01/06/2022 5:12:09 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: cymbeline

It’s been done...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047758/


16 posted on 01/06/2022 5:14:50 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Kaslin

Reparations to slaves was done during Reconstruction. Land was confiscated from southerners and divided in 50 acre plots with a mule. If the former uneducated former slave couldn’t make it work, tough.


17 posted on 01/06/2022 5:40:01 AM PST by DownInFlames (P)
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To: Kaslin

How many hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on the “War on Poverty”, affirmative action, set-asides, etc.? Reparations have been paid, and demands for more are still made. There will be no end of demands for more give-mes.

Plus, the country is now broke from the reparations that have already been paid.


18 posted on 01/06/2022 6:07:00 AM PST by SharpRightTurn (Election Fraud Deniers--Won't follow the science, won't follow the law.)
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To: Kaslin

Reparations?

A simple “No” will suffice.


19 posted on 01/06/2022 6:15:38 AM PST by moovova
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To: Kaslin

Even if reparations were approved, and a dollar figure identified, the immediate response would be: “it’s not enough.”


20 posted on 01/06/2022 6:19:50 AM PST by GreenHornet
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