Comments on: Reparations https://habitablezone.com/2019/04/11/reparations/ Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:57:41 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2019/04/11/reparations/#comment-43184 ER Thu, 11 Apr 2019 23:34:10 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=76574#comment-43184 ...yep, that's what its going to take. But ancestry means nothing. The moral question is not how do we determine it equitably, but should it be determined at all, for any reason? We should not be responsible for the sins of our grandfathers, any more than we should demand credit for their achievements and successes. That's why all good Progressives are for a robust inheritance tax, right? Why should my kid not go to college while Daddy Warbucks gets to send his larvae to the Ivy League? The outrage at the latest college admissions scandal documents this. If you give the rich the opportunity to buy their way to the top, they'll STILL figure they have the right to cheat. After all, people with money ARE the master race, aren't they? Ask them, they'll tell you they have the work ethic, the determination, the ambition, the ability to postpone rewards, etc etc. They're just better...its in their blud. There is a compromise, though. Everybody gets reparations, but everybody foots the bill, too. The progressive income tax soaks those who can most afford it, while competitive examinations (or if necessary, a lottery) distribute it to those who need it the most. Those who can't hack it should get no special favors just because their ancestors were either robbed blind, or doing the robbing. Hereditary aristocracies are phoobah, so is hereditary victimhood. <em>From each according to his ability </em>(to pay) I can live with. <em>To each according to his need</em> is where I draw the line. All we really need is that the game not be rigged, and the umpires are fair. If some of us are better, faster, smarter, stronger than others, then so be it. The time for Reparations, like Affirmative Action, is long past. Forty acres and a mule may have been humane in the 19th century, but its not going to work today. I am a firm believer and solid booster for free markets, I just have yet to see one. And you're not about to see them in laissez-faire societies. <em>"In the absence of proper government, the strong will ALWAYS take from the weak."</em> …yep, that’s what its going to take. But ancestry means nothing. The moral question is not how do we determine it equitably, but should it be determined at all, for any reason? We should not be responsible for the sins of our grandfathers, any more than we should demand credit for their achievements and successes. That’s why all good Progressives are for a robust inheritance tax, right? Why should my kid not go to college while Daddy Warbucks gets to send his larvae to the Ivy League? The outrage at the latest college admissions scandal documents this. If you give the rich the opportunity to buy their way to the top, they’ll STILL figure they have the right to cheat. After all, people with money ARE the master race, aren’t they?
Ask them, they’ll tell you they have the work ethic, the determination, the ambition, the ability to postpone rewards, etc etc. They’re just better…its in their blud.

There is a compromise, though. Everybody gets reparations, but everybody foots the bill, too. The progressive income tax soaks those who can most afford it, while competitive examinations (or if necessary, a lottery) distribute it to those who need it the most. Those who can’t hack it should get no special favors just because their ancestors were either robbed blind, or doing the robbing.

Hereditary aristocracies are phoobah, so is hereditary victimhood. From each according to his ability (to pay) I can live with. To each according to his need is where I draw the line. All we really need is that the game not be rigged, and the umpires are fair. If some of us are better, faster, smarter, stronger than others, then so be it. The time for Reparations, like Affirmative Action, is long past. Forty acres and a mule may have been humane in the 19th century, but its not going to work today.

I am a firm believer and solid booster for free markets, I just have yet to see one. And you’re not about to see them in laissez-faire societies.

“In the absence of proper government, the strong will ALWAYS take from the weak.”

]]> By: Robert https://habitablezone.com/2019/04/11/reparations/#comment-43183 Robert Thu, 11 Apr 2019 21:23:17 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=76574#comment-43183 And yet...America was built with substantial help from slave labor. Labor that people were transported from Africa to give to us, against their will. Seems to me like a simple debt that's yet to be repaid. You don't get to keep stolen goods just because it was your grandpa who received them. And yet...As much as I see a moral imperative to reparations, what's required to make it happen is morally repulsive. Because the color of one's skin is not sufficient, it's ancestry that's at issue. First, proving that one had an ancestor who was a slave; then how many; and ultimately, what percentage of each person is of slavish extraction. I know, ER, that you know history quite well enough to remember that vile old regime that had a vast bureaucracy to determine what percentage of a person's "blood" was Aryan...or Jewish. How would we pay reparations without following the Nazis down the beginning of that slippery slope to hell? Wouldn't the white supremacists just love the idea of getting a certificate from the government that their "blood" is 100% European? Because that's also implicit in the existence of such a bureaucracy. They couldn't turn away anyone who applies for reparations, especially just because their skin's "too light". So the government would be compelled to perform a DNA analysis and genealogical research to produce a verdict that racists could brandish as a badge of honor (at least, assuming no surprises in the woodshed...[but the monetary reward for a surprise makes it a win-win]). And oh by the way, then the government would have a database of the DNA of millions of Americans. Law enforcement is already mining private DNA testing companies for evidence. Imagine cops mining a central federal DNA database. And yet...if the real-world moral downside didn't outweigh the upside so badly, I'd be for reparations. The argument about fairness to individual white people is about as specious as the one about fairness of school taxes to non-parents. We're all liable for the obligations of our society. No man is an island. Ayn Rand was a sociopathic monster. So was Maggie Thatcher, and there is too such a thing as "society". And yet…America was built with substantial help from slave labor. Labor that people were transported from Africa to give to us, against their will. Seems to me like a simple debt that’s yet to be repaid. You don’t get to keep stolen goods just because it was your grandpa who received them.

And yet…As much as I see a moral imperative to reparations, what’s required to make it happen is morally repulsive. Because the color of one’s skin is not sufficient, it’s ancestry that’s at issue. First, proving that one had an ancestor who was a slave; then how many; and ultimately, what percentage of each person is of slavish extraction.

I know, ER, that you know history quite well enough to remember that vile old regime that had a vast bureaucracy to determine what percentage of a person’s “blood” was Aryan…or Jewish. How would we pay reparations without following the Nazis down the beginning of that slippery slope to hell?

Wouldn’t the white supremacists just love the idea of getting a certificate from the government that their “blood” is 100% European? Because that’s also implicit in the existence of such a bureaucracy. They couldn’t turn away anyone who applies for reparations, especially just because their skin’s “too light”. So the government would be compelled to perform a DNA analysis and genealogical research to produce a verdict that racists could brandish as a badge of honor (at least, assuming no surprises in the woodshed…[but the monetary reward for a surprise makes it a win-win]).

And oh by the way, then the government would have a database of the DNA of millions of Americans. Law enforcement is already mining private DNA testing companies for evidence. Imagine cops mining a central federal DNA database.

And yet…if the real-world moral downside didn’t outweigh the upside so badly, I’d be for reparations. The argument about fairness to individual white people is about as specious as the one about fairness of school taxes to non-parents. We’re all liable for the obligations of our society. No man is an island. Ayn Rand was a sociopathic monster. So was Maggie Thatcher, and there is too such a thing as “society”.

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