09-28-2016, 11:33 PM
Reparations may be the most ridiculous subject of all. It's as simply explained as stupid as the proposed minimum wages increases are .
Look, I don't consider myself all that smart. I have the ACT and SAT scores, and the 2.4 college GPA to prove it. My income somewhat supports this as well. Einstein I am not. So I feel like things that are easily understood by me should be easily understood my most. And if they're not easily understood, they should be understood regardless. When someone takes the time or even if they have someone break it down for them, it should be ever apparent that the idea of reparations is not only foolish but counterproductive to making this country any more color blind. Some questions:
1.) Who would pay them? Specifically.
Would it just be Americans, and if so why exactly. African slaves made it all over Europe. Hell, they probably made it to every continent but one. Africa itself, as a country, or some select population, surely is responsible as well are they not?
So I'm not sure why (some of) the American people would be the only ones on the hook. Because if they were, the need to have them and the action of awarding them wouldn't be based on actual responsibility.
But let's just assume, yeah, (some) Americans are responsible for reparations. Let's dig deeper...
2.) Of Americans, because somehow the rest of the world shares no blame, who pays out?
Is it just all white people? How is that fair? Again, what about people who immigrated here after the fact? What about who people immigrated here in the last 20 years? Do they have pay into it because just they're "white"? How would you define those who need to either be taxed or charged for this payout?
Really think about this, it's already all sorts of convoluted. How are you really going to decide who is responsible for them? Because it starting to sound as unfair as sticking America with the bill alone.
3.) Of the people you've now decided need to pay, how much do they pay? Is it a flat amount, the same goes for everyone? Is it a sliding scale based on income? Is it somehow based on your genealogy? Is their a way that someone who descends from old, old, old, olddddd money pays more than some poor "white" schmuck that immigrated here the 1980's.
4.) Who gets them? Is it all African-Americans? And how much do they get? Is it all equal? Could that too be dependent on income, and there's a sliding scale. And much like the questions posed before, does genealogy count for anything. Would an "African-American" family that's been here longer get more than a someone immigrated here much later on?
And what about African immigrates that recently immigrated here? Do they get anything? Does everyone involved do their due diligence to insure that people like recent African, Jamaican and Haitian immigrants don't get paid out?
I mean, do you know how many can simply check off "African-American" on a box? We'd see some Dominican-Americans attempting to cash in, I guarantee it. So who is going to figure all this out? A 10,000 person team with a premium Ancestory.com account?
5.) What about people who are bi-racial? Do they get reparations? I mean, they should right? But then again, you could argue that they pay out too? Does the black side of them trump the white side of them, or is it the other way around? Is it neither? Do they just get stuck in the middle? Pay nothing, get nothing.
What about mixed couples? Does the husband get taxed at a different rate than the wife? Does the husband send off a lump sum check, only to see the wife receive a lump sum check in the mail? Kinda a wash there is it not? That white guy didn't really have to pay anything, while that black lady didn't get her fare share. That doesn't make sense either?
6.) How would go about collecting them? Taxes? Would you be required to pay immediately or would you have time? What happens if you can't pay anything? Are you off the hook forever, or is it like student loan debt that never dies?
7.) How do you go about making sure people don't abuse the system? We can't even put rules and regulations to prevent food stamp fraud. How can we insure the money is getting to the appropriate people? Also, how can we insure everyone is paying their fair share?
8.) What's the statue of limitations on these types of things? Is 300 years? 400? 500? 2000 years? What's the magic number? Can other countries and nationalities start attempting to collect money from their own atrocious history? People could make the case the world over for reparations. And if you argue, no, only current living African-Americans can then why is that? Tell me.
9.) This government could barely build a working health care website. It takes years to fix sections of highways, and decades to fix our bridges. How in the hell are they going to manage figure all of this out? It would be impossible. We all know how much red-tape there is, how many loopholes there are, how many ways to abuse the system there are. There is simply no way they could even execute something like this in a fair and equal manner, in any amount of time that would be deemed appropriate.
It would take years and years, and years. And you end with a whole clusterfrack of people who were either unfairly punished or rewarded.
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It's a waste of time to discuss. There is no fair way to do it, there is no clear right way to award it or charge it. There is no reason that this is our country alone's burden to bare. And even assuming you want to ignore of all that, it's simply not feasible. It can't be done. And even if it could (it can't) it would only hurt race relations even more.
You can either debate and waste time on the subject of reparations, only creating more ill-will and unrealistic demands, or you can simply realize it's not worth it, and move on to a worthwhile topic.
Calling for and demanding reparations is almost like asking someone what needs to be done to fix something (your wife, your boss, your client, etc.) and them replying that you need to fly to Pluto back. In no way is it a realistic demand, and it doesn't nothing to address or fix the problem. It only suggest that the person you're trying to appease is irrational. Like I said, you don't have to be a genius to understand this stuff.
Look, I don't consider myself all that smart. I have the ACT and SAT scores, and the 2.4 college GPA to prove it. My income somewhat supports this as well. Einstein I am not. So I feel like things that are easily understood by me should be easily understood my most. And if they're not easily understood, they should be understood regardless. When someone takes the time or even if they have someone break it down for them, it should be ever apparent that the idea of reparations is not only foolish but counterproductive to making this country any more color blind. Some questions:
1.) Who would pay them? Specifically.
Would it just be Americans, and if so why exactly. African slaves made it all over Europe. Hell, they probably made it to every continent but one. Africa itself, as a country, or some select population, surely is responsible as well are they not?
So I'm not sure why (some of) the American people would be the only ones on the hook. Because if they were, the need to have them and the action of awarding them wouldn't be based on actual responsibility.
But let's just assume, yeah, (some) Americans are responsible for reparations. Let's dig deeper...
2.) Of Americans, because somehow the rest of the world shares no blame, who pays out?
Is it just all white people? How is that fair? Again, what about people who immigrated here after the fact? What about who people immigrated here in the last 20 years? Do they have pay into it because just they're "white"? How would you define those who need to either be taxed or charged for this payout?
Really think about this, it's already all sorts of convoluted. How are you really going to decide who is responsible for them? Because it starting to sound as unfair as sticking America with the bill alone.
3.) Of the people you've now decided need to pay, how much do they pay? Is it a flat amount, the same goes for everyone? Is it a sliding scale based on income? Is it somehow based on your genealogy? Is their a way that someone who descends from old, old, old, olddddd money pays more than some poor "white" schmuck that immigrated here the 1980's.
4.) Who gets them? Is it all African-Americans? And how much do they get? Is it all equal? Could that too be dependent on income, and there's a sliding scale. And much like the questions posed before, does genealogy count for anything. Would an "African-American" family that's been here longer get more than a someone immigrated here much later on?
And what about African immigrates that recently immigrated here? Do they get anything? Does everyone involved do their due diligence to insure that people like recent African, Jamaican and Haitian immigrants don't get paid out?
I mean, do you know how many can simply check off "African-American" on a box? We'd see some Dominican-Americans attempting to cash in, I guarantee it. So who is going to figure all this out? A 10,000 person team with a premium Ancestory.com account?
5.) What about people who are bi-racial? Do they get reparations? I mean, they should right? But then again, you could argue that they pay out too? Does the black side of them trump the white side of them, or is it the other way around? Is it neither? Do they just get stuck in the middle? Pay nothing, get nothing.
What about mixed couples? Does the husband get taxed at a different rate than the wife? Does the husband send off a lump sum check, only to see the wife receive a lump sum check in the mail? Kinda a wash there is it not? That white guy didn't really have to pay anything, while that black lady didn't get her fare share. That doesn't make sense either?
6.) How would go about collecting them? Taxes? Would you be required to pay immediately or would you have time? What happens if you can't pay anything? Are you off the hook forever, or is it like student loan debt that never dies?
7.) How do you go about making sure people don't abuse the system? We can't even put rules and regulations to prevent food stamp fraud. How can we insure the money is getting to the appropriate people? Also, how can we insure everyone is paying their fair share?
8.) What's the statue of limitations on these types of things? Is 300 years? 400? 500? 2000 years? What's the magic number? Can other countries and nationalities start attempting to collect money from their own atrocious history? People could make the case the world over for reparations. And if you argue, no, only current living African-Americans can then why is that? Tell me.
9.) This government could barely build a working health care website. It takes years to fix sections of highways, and decades to fix our bridges. How in the hell are they going to manage figure all of this out? It would be impossible. We all know how much red-tape there is, how many loopholes there are, how many ways to abuse the system there are. There is simply no way they could even execute something like this in a fair and equal manner, in any amount of time that would be deemed appropriate.
It would take years and years, and years. And you end with a whole clusterfrack of people who were either unfairly punished or rewarded.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's a waste of time to discuss. There is no fair way to do it, there is no clear right way to award it or charge it. There is no reason that this is our country alone's burden to bare. And even assuming you want to ignore of all that, it's simply not feasible. It can't be done. And even if it could (it can't) it would only hurt race relations even more.
You can either debate and waste time on the subject of reparations, only creating more ill-will and unrealistic demands, or you can simply realize it's not worth it, and move on to a worthwhile topic.
Calling for and demanding reparations is almost like asking someone what needs to be done to fix something (your wife, your boss, your client, etc.) and them replying that you need to fly to Pluto back. In no way is it a realistic demand, and it doesn't nothing to address or fix the problem. It only suggest that the person you're trying to appease is irrational. Like I said, you don't have to be a genius to understand this stuff.
