I see the usual suspects are again yammering on about "reparations for slavery" that should (they claim) be paid to black Americans for the trials and tribulations of their forefathers. I think it's utter nonsense, because those directly affected by slavery are no longer with us. I'll gladly support reparations to anyone who was a slave under US law, even to anyone whose parents, or grandparents, or any living relative was a slave under US law - but I won't support reparations to those who have a more distant connection to it.
Mike, blogging at Cold Fury, puts things in perspective, IMHO.
Any attempt at “reparations” legislation will be scandalous folly, doomed to fail for all sorts of good and patently obvious reasons. It will end up satisfying precisely no one on either side of the equation—not the beneficiaries, not the people forced to pay a tab in no just or logical sense their own. It will be unjust and tyrannical by definition, coercing people whose ancestors never owned a single slave into coughing up handsomely to other people many of whom are not the descendants of slaves. It will be farcical, unfair, unethical, and completely unworkable.
Worse yet, it will also be truly, definitionally racist: a government-sponsored program of coerced confiscation from blameless people guilty of no crime, the ill-gotten gains then gifted to ersatz “victims” who have been done no conceivable harm—ie, a wealth-redistribution scam based wholly on skin color and nothing whatsoever else.
In other words, these comically-misnomered “reparations” will be just another typical government boondoggle, gratifying only the tens of thousands (or more) of overpaid, slothful bureaucrats hired to manage the whole sorry scheme—bureaucrats who will never be fired, because this new grift will conjure reasons for itself to extend its mandate indefinitely... just like every other eternal government goat-rope does.
There's more at the link.
I couldn't agree more!
Peter
12 comments:
We fought a brutal vicious war where some 300,000 Union soldiers died to end slavery.
We amended our Constitution to ensure that former slaves received every benefit due them as full citizens of the United States of America, something that current foreigners seem willing to risk their lives and fortunes to achieve.
In later years we used Federal troops to end segregation and stop Jim Crow laws.
We established affirmative action to give those disadvantaged by the lingering effects of racism a helping hand.
So when I hear talk of reparations all I see is a pack of grifters doing their best to milk white guilt for all it's worth.
Hire out two cruise ship companies. Your "reparation" is a free trip home. You've been given enough advantages to get a start in your old home. Don't come back.
What about all the money extracted from taxpayers since the mid '60's and paid out for welfare, housing & job-training? It is probably enough to purchase every business in the US Today.
So what about the Irish? They were treated more cruelly than the Africans but you don't hear them howling.
What "Unknown" said.
Plus, I will agree to give my share when you show me where my ancestors ever owned a slave. (Hint: They didn't).
Something I've wondered about since this silly idea was first broached: given that my dad's side of the family fought for the Union, and my mom's side was Quaker, and ran a station on the Underground Railroad, shall I deduct any reparations from my family's bill for services rendered? :p
@B -- I have at least one slave owner in my ancestry -- 5 generations back. So I have 32 ancestors of that generation. Would I have to pay "a full share" (whatever that would be) or would I only have to pay 1/32nd of a share since only 1/32 of my ancestors of that generation owned slaves? But I've also had 30 other ancestors since then who didn't own slaves, and 12 of those 30 immigrated to the US *after* 1865, so they had no part of "the legacy of slavery" whatsoever so should I get additional credits for that?
My sister has adopted a black daughter. Does she have to pay reparations to my niece over and above the whole "feeding, clothing, housing, loving, medical care, schooling, etc" thing? What about my co-worker who has 3 black sons? Or the family I grew up with who raised 5 black children?
The reparations crowd is merely trying to hang onto/ensure the Free $hit Army vote for the Evil Party, or get that handout themselves, or be seen as supporting the "oppressed minority".
Time to hang a few (or more) politicians if they get to talking about this for real.
If we pay anything, that person has to renounce their US citizenship and move to Liberia. I'm tired of these parasites having any say especially with voting in this society.
anyone who thinks reparations is about giving $ to individual black people is naïve. EVERY government program is really about enriching politicians and the connected. $ would be given to "organizations" etc. IT is a scam but blacks will believe they will get $ and be duped again.
"I'll gladly support reparations to anyone who was a slave under US law, even to anyone whose parents, or grandparents, or any living relative was a slave under US law..."
Nope, not one damn dime for reparations to anyone that has been, or will be in the future, a slave under US law. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution only prohibits the private ownership of slaves. There is no one, NO ONE alive today that was a slave or the child born of a slave. I've paid all the reparations I'm going to pay in the form of affirmative action and a dozen other laws and programs. The Dane has already received all the geld he is going to get.
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