Why reparations for slavery could help boost the economy

Reuters ^ | June 4, 2014 | Michael Maiello

[C19fan]

In the May 21 issue of The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates re-opened the question of whether the United States government should pay reparations to African-Americans for the crimes of two and a half centuries of slavery, 60 years of Jim Crow-style segregation and decades more of racist housing policies, zoning and community development. His conclusion — that a great accounting of wrongs must take place, as well as a decision about how to make amends for them– has inevitably sparked disagreement. But set that aside. Imagine we have decided yes, as a society we must pay a price for these injustices, and it must be large. Those payments could well constitute the stimulus that the U.S. economy needs to take it into the next century.

To the economy, stimulus is stimulus, as long as it’s done right. Whether it is paid to a group of people based on where they live, their ethnicity or their religion might matter to politics, but to the economy, it doesn’t matter – as long as the money is put to work through either consumption or investment. The reparations-as-stimulus idea gets a short mention from Coates, who writes that:

[CSM]

“Reparations would certainly stimulate SOME industries (crack production comes to mind), but it would equally depress others.”

You are completely discounting the fact that the “crack stimulus” would trickle down to the spinner rims industry! Geesh man, don’t discount such stimulus activities!

;-)