Reparations cost to the economy

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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So California is pushing forward on Reparations in a push to fix the past. It seems some people want to throw money at problems. My question is how far is all of this going to go? Shouldn’t the Indians get reparations? All of the land should go back to them because all of us are living on their land. Shouldn’t we have to give all of the South back to Mexico because we took the land from them? Shouldn’t the Chinese be paid reparations? Just how far back and how much is everyone willing to pay? This could have huge implications on the economy.

Andy

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Well, we could go the other way, no reparations at all. Then the “JCs” would be free to design and sell known hazardous products, without fear of consequences of people being killed by their known hazardous products. What is alimony, if not reparations? What is a fine, if not reparations?

Anyone else suspect that the narrative that slaves “benefited from being slaves” is a way to defuse the reparations push, by insisting no harm was done?

So, how do they calculate how much a person qualifies for? Would each person need to do the Alex Haley thing, and trace their lineage directly back to someone snatched from Africa, and sold into slavery.? How about a DNA analysis? If your DNA is 57% African, then you get 57% of the base reparations rate?

Or are the reparations to be based on the 150 years of racism since the Civil War?

I am getting visions of “Bleak House”, where the adjudication of each claim would be so complex, that the applicant will die of old age before a determination can be made.

Steve

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Which has nothing to do with reparations.

DB2

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# reparation

  • the making of amends for wrong or injury done:*

  • something done or given to make amends:*

Is that not the foundation of every tort suit?

Steve…having flashbacks to the “hairy hand” scenario in “The Paper Chase”

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Seriously? You don’t about the reparations debate? From the OP link:

The Task Force’s final report make the case for reparations and provides justification for LA County to take action…

African American Californians reside in all 58 counties, with the highest concentration in Los Angeles County (943,145), followed by San Bernardino County (223,116), San Diego County (211,354), Alameda County (198,250), and Riverside County (197,329).

Cases involving freedom seekers from enslavement continued post-1855. Notably, the 1856 freedom case of Bridget “Biddy” Mason in Los Angeles County resulted in the emancipation of 19 enslaved individuals.

On April 22, 1922, over 100 armed and hooded Klansmen raided a home in Inglewood. The Klan had deeply infiltrated state and local government, including law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County, with 3,000 Klan members countywide, over 1,000 within the city limits, and three on the District Attorney’s staff.

Et cetera.

Assembly Bill (AB) 3121 moves descendants of enslaved Americans one step closer to getting restitution for centuries of free labor and legal discrimination that followed it, supporters say. But Black Californians who may qualify for reparations payments, should not expect a check any time soon for the ills of slavery.

AB 3121, titled “The Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” would create a nine-member commission to investigate the history of slavery in the United States, the extent of California’s involvement in slavery, segregation and the denial of Black citizens their constitutional rights — and how much the state benefited from those activities and policies.

DB2

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That is a good question Steve, How do you calculate the life of everyone that died in the Civil War, Fighting to free the slaves? Do we say their ancestors do not have to pay? Maybe we make the ones that fought in the Civil War to uphold slavery and make them foot the bill. How do we calculate all the Indians that were killed in the United States and all the land that was taken from them? A lot of injustices all across the world and it seems that everyone is trying to fix them with money instead of just saying enough is enough and living together to make a better world.

Andy

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So how are we going to make the Indians whole?

Andy

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Everyplace belonged to someone else at some time.

The Chinese pushed to Vietnamese south. The Vietnamese then pushed to local tribes up into the mountains.

Et cetera.

DB2

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That has nothing to do with the United States DB. I doubt the Chinese will be paying anyone reparations. It seems in this country we have a penchant of throwing money at everything. I am still trying to figure out the, pay for other people’s student loans thing.

Andy

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Is California going to pay for injustice done in South Carolina? Doubt it. To collect anything, a family would need to document when their antecedents came to Cali.

Even a national program would need to see documentation of a family’s movements. Pay X amount for living in the “Jim Crow” south, then a lower rate when the family moved to Detroit to work in a defense plant during the war, as a for instance.

Handing out free government money is always popular. I remember receiving a free check from the government, with a name printed on it. Then, a couple weeks later, receiving a letter with that same name printed on it, saying, in effect “I gave you money, aren’t I great?”

I don’t see a practical way to untangle centuries of injustice, and distill it down to a check. That is why I have flashbacks to “Bleak House”. But it makes a nice stump speech, to the right crowd, just like the stump speeches promising to increase the child tax credit.

Steve

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True. It is an example of “Everyplace belonged to someone else a some time” – which Charles de Gaulle pointed out to Dwight Eisenhower.

DB2

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There are a lot of Hispanics & Asians in California. And many have arrived long past the Civil War.
I would expect they have zero interest in making reparation payment. Especially as most of their ancestors had no part of slavery or discrimination of blacks.

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Good point, tho there was a stretch were not many Asians came into the US.

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Maybe Newsome will just sign an executive order, since he is pushing it. That seems the new way to get around things these days.

Andy

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I agree. My grandmother lived in a time before social Security, so since she didn’t get it I am against Social Security. It’s not fair to her. Also my mother died of COPD, so since she wasn’t cured I am against research to help other people who might someday be cured, because how is that fair?

We must adhere to our standards of equity, mustn’t we!

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Well, if she lived before SS, she didn’t pay for SS, so there’s that. :wink:

Steve

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Well since, I assume, you are older than dirt. You should also be against fire because that was probably before your mothers time too.

Andy

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This is not a particularly good argument for the school loan thing today. Two people:

Joe: Took $40k loans in college, graduated 2016, got a job for $55k, scrimped and saved and paid off loans over the next 8 years (even through covid period).

Dave: Took $40k loans in college, graduated in 2016, got a job for $55k, paid loans sporadically and late, then as luck would have it, in April 2020 could stop paying for over 3 years. Bought a nice SUV with all the extra money due to no monthly loan payments.

Now comes along loan forgiveness. Dave is offered forgiveness on the remaining $18k of loans. And to add insult to injury, he won’t have to pay taxes on that $18k (under a recent law signed into law by the president). Meanwhile, Joe, the guy who paid off his loans (the EXACT SAME loan from the EXACT SAME time with the SAME circumstances) not only doesn’t get a gift of $18k from the government, but to add insult to injury actually had to pay taxes on that $18k that he paid back. In the end, the government paid for part of Dave’s SUV.

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Now let’s take this a step further. Dave went to college and decided to take basket weaving. He partied all through college and came out the other end with a liberal arts degree with a c average. He couldn’t find a job.

Joe went into the service, fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, came out with a GI bill that helps pay for college.

Jack went to a community college and learned a trade. While in college he found a job in his career and worked full time while going to college. He paid as he went. All because he didn’t want the debt.

There is a really good book out there called the Three Little Pigs. It really gives some great life lessons.

Andy

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Correction…we, the taxpayers, paid for part of Dave’s SUV. The gov’t is just the passthrough entity that forced us to make this generous gift to Dave.

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