Slavery reparations could carry a $17 trillion price tag

Somebody ran the numbers.

Slavery reparations could carry a $17 trillion price tag

Economist Larry Neal tried to tabulate the price tag of unpaid wages to slaves from 1620 to 1840. In 1983 when he calculated the number, he estimated that slaves were owed $1.4 trillion in unpaid wages, or $3.6 trillion today. Economist James Marketti estimated that unpaid wages totaled somewhere between $3 trillion and $5 trillion dollars — again in 1983. Today, when accounting for inflation that number leaps to $7.7 trillion to $12.9 trillion.

...But these costs do not include the lingering economic impact of Jim Crow and current discrimination that black people face in the labor market, health care system, or education and criminal justice systems. According to “The Economics of Reparations,” that figure stands at an additional $1.3 trillion to $4.2 trillion today. When totaling Marketti’s estimates along with restitution costs for racial injustice since the end of slavery, reparations could range from $9 to $17.1 trillion.

So the $17 trillion number seems to include things that didn't actually have to do with slavery. So I would think the actual number would be the $7.7 to $12.9 trillion figures. Since the size of the US economy is a bit over 20 trillion, it looks like we'll have to give more than half the entire country to pay for slave reparations. Better open those wallets wide!

 

Now this, is beautiful.

 

Are there going to be reparations for the descendants of Union Soldiers who were killed or injured during the civil war fighting for the freedom of black slaves???

 

Ha! That's pretty funny!

 

Should the descendants of African American slaves get Reparations? I am not African American -- I do not know.

Should the descendants of Russian Serfs have gotten reparations in 1920? My great-grandparents played a role in answering that question. I am proud of my ancestors.

 

Don't give them any ideas!

 

Obviously "reparations" is a morally appalling idea since neither slaves nor slave owners are any longer alive - Who pays what to whom?

Obviously, "reparations" is just another idea to milk the American population on taxes and further expand the size and power of the State.

 

My grandparents (both sets) immigrated between 1900 and 1910. none of them ever owned slaves. Why should I or my parents be penalized for acts that they never took part in? Isn't this some kind of group guilt? The UN denies this type of responsibility: holding the whole responsible for the actions of some..

 

So... wholly unrealistic then.

Next!

 

I believe in reincarnation. I am a white person now but if I were a black slave in a previous life, should I get reparations for the suffering I endured?

 

Maybe the payment amount could be negotiated.

 

You and your family have benefited indirectly from the free labor enslaved people provided. It doesn't matter whether you personally owned slaves or not.

 

Didn't their families receive compensation from the government already?

 

Yes, it is very beautiful.

 

I don't know if you should receive reparations or not. Maybe you should look into it.
P.S. I'm proud of my enslaved ancestors too.

 

There are plenty of ways to calculate it. the cash value of 40 acres and a mule from 1865 plus interest since then, but divided by...how? All the descendents of a particular slave divides that amount? There are a lot of ways to figure it out.

 

What if a person had several ancestors who were enslaved? Would the 40 acres and a mule be multiplied by each one?

 

See how difficult this is?

Job one seems to me is some sort of massive genealogical research project to even determine who is descended from slaves (in the US). Barack Obama would get nothing of course, but his daughters are half descended from slaves, so should they get half? It gets complicated.

 

Yes, it does get complicated. We'll get it worked out.

 

More than half of white immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution were under indentured servitude. Probably some white Americans may be eligible for slavery reparations, if their ancestry can be traced back to indentured servants common among poor Europeans at the time.

 

If these White indentured servants meet the criteria for reparations, then I'd like them to receive them.
Of course being a chattel slave was different in many ways from being an indentured servant.
1) Indentured servants were freed after a certain number of years, unlike slaves who were held in bondage from birth until death. Ditto for the slave's descendants.
2) Having White skin gave the European indentured servants a distinct advantage in a society that valued Whiteness over Blackness. So, they had a head start economically and politically.

 

I m given to understand that reparations are to be given for slavery. Not some other thing.

 

Haven't blacks already claimed all this free money though the welfare system?

 

Reparations is not free money. It is compensation owed our ancestors that was never paid.

 

The ancestors are dead mate. Plus blood lines are so watered down, probably a lot mixed in there. Slaves, free men, slave owners, white people with black slace ancestors, good people, rapist and murders e.t.c.

Paying reperations for the long distance past is the most idiotic idea ever.