proud republican wrote:
What do you guys think???.....As for me...My ancestors werent even here....And if we were going to give reparations for this,then how about reparations to Russian Jews whose ancestors were murdered by Nazi Germany in Concentration Death Camps...Should we ask Germany to pay Jewish people for something that their Nazi ancestors were responsible for???....Simple question...
This is one of those bright ideas that just screams for a reductio ad absurdum analysis. Take the original premise, in this case, that some modern people should pay some other modern people 'reparations' for an injustice perpetrated some 150 years ago by some other people against yet other people, none of whom have any bearing or relationship to those living today; whether those supposedly paying up or those on the receiving end of this modern day transfer of funds. Now let's extrapolate that out.
The idea of the German people paying reparations to the Jews for the holocaust, for instance. Good idea. Then there's all the millions of people murdered by Communism in the 20th century. Shouldn't the Russian and Chinese governments be paying out for the loss of family members during these times of governmental insanity? It certainly seems to fit the sentiment, does it not? Pol Pot would certainly be in for some shellackings in that case, wouldn't he?
Then there's the people who sold all these other people into slavery in the first place. They were just as guilty of sustaining the African slave trade as the Yankee traders who gave them beads and tools in return for their captives, is that not so? They need to pony up as well, according to this logic.
Then we get into some really egregious injustices, like those perpetrated against women throughout the ages. How many women were kept down, humiliated, distrusted, belittled, you name it, all in the name of male dominance? More to the point, how much should the male half of the population pony up to their 'better halves' to make good on the misery they undoubtedly wrought upon their female counterparts? Half of everything? More? How do you quantify it? Is it even possible?
Taking this reparations idea to its logical conclusion, it appears that all of humanity owes all of humanity everything. Okay, so let's all pay each other, consider the trillions of debts retired, and go on with our lives just as we did before, because we all paid each other so we all finished up right back where we started.
Or we can simply learn from the past and resolve not to make those mistakes in the future. Deal?