The Huffington Post published an idiotic piece arguing that slavery reparations are possible and logical. Here are five reasons why reparations would be logistically, politically, and logically unworkable.
1. It’s logistically impossible.
Reparation advocates only make arguments based on emotional appeal rather than on logic and reason. Julia Craven does not offer any logistics as to how reparations would work, just vague statements about how the government will oversee it. But as The Daily Wire‘s Ben Shapiro likes to say, “The government sucks at everything.” The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates tried to make a case for reparations, and failed.
The reason reparations advocates struggle to make a case is because there is no possible way to do it. There are numerous immigrants who have entered the U.S. who were not a part of enslaving blacks, and there were also blacks that owned black slaves during the slave era. How would the government be able to have the resources to determine every single person who had slaveowner ancestors as well as ancestors who were slaves? What about those of mixed race? It’s impossible.
As economist Thomas Sowell points out, “Even during the era of slavery, most white people owned no slaves. Are their descendants supposed to pay for the descendants of those who did?” It would be irresponsible to punish not only all white people but all of American society for the blight of slavery.
2. Such a move would worsen the debt.
Craven’s article estimates that reparations would cost $6.4 trillion, not including “the physical and sexual violence inflicted upon enslaved Africans.” Given that the country already faces a $19 trillion fiscal operating debt and over $210 trillion in unfunded liabilities, adding another $6.4 trillion would be financially crippling, not to mention politically inconceivable.
3. Slavery reparations won’t help the black community.
Sowell addresses this issue as well:
But the poverty rate among blacks fell by half between 1940 and 1960, before any of the major federal civil rights legislation or the vast expansion of the welfare state under President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs.
Between 1940 and 1960, black males’ number of years of schooling doubled. How surprising is it that doubling your education raises your income? In short, most blacks raised themselves out of poverty, but their leaders robbed them of this achievement and the respect it deserved — in the eyes of blacks and whites alike — by making it seem like a concession from the government and a product of agitation.
What changed was that the expansion of the welfare state resulted in the breakup of the black family, which has been clearly linked to higher poverty rates. Reparations are simply another welfare program, which will not solve the problem, it will only exacerbate it. As Sowell writes in a separate column, “What about the effect of all this on today’s black population? Is anyone made better off by being supplied with resentments and distractions from the task of developing the capabilities that pay off in a booming economy and a high-tech world?”
Instead, as it is for all people, it is better for African Americans to look to themselves to improve their standing in the life.
4. Despite what reparations advocates say, slavery was not a massive boon to the economy.
Economist Walter Williams dispels this myth:
Slavery doesn’t have a very good record of producing wealth. Slavery was all over the South, and it was outlawed in most of the North. Buying into the reparations argument about the riches of slavery, one would conclude that the antebellum South was rich and the slave-starved North was poor. The truth of the matter is just the opposite. In fact, the poorest states and regions of our nation were places where slavery flourished — Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia — while the richest states and regions were those where slavery was absent: Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
The argument then that America’s wealth was created off of the backs of slaves is simply untrue. Where slavery thrived the economy did not. The more affluent areas of the country had banned slavery long before they began to truly prosper economically, while the South struggled financially while the evil institution remained in place.
5. If slavery reparations at some point are actually paid, it will never be enough for the race hustlers.
The race hustling industry is only interested in promoting themselves and need to stir up racism in order to keep the money flowing. At what point would enough be enough? When would the debt be considered to be fully paid? The answer is never.