I've said it before: the Obama administration already tried a form of reparations in their best case scenario and it resulted in a complete fucking collapse of tribal governments and economies.
Many years ago, now, they settled a lawsuit with a multiplicity of tribal governments for $1.1 billion dollars for contract violations.
As the settlement checks went out, tribal governments begin to purity spiral with their own constituents. The term "tribal disenrollment" began to be used as tribal governments literally expelled political rivals and dissidents from tribes, which created massive political upheaval within them. Bizarre and arbitrary measures began to be imposed about who counted as a tribal member based on what evidence, and it quickly descended into infighting, nepotism, and cronyism. In some cases, political violence. As the checks became fewer and smaller, the problem got worse, as more people were removed from the tribal rolls to keep the same amount of money incoming to the government approved people.
Overall, the effective result of this reparations scheme, which had specific groups of people, who were alive, who had genuine contract violations done against them, for articulable damages, resulted in rampant crime, corruption, nepotism, political upheaval, and violence. In the end, absolutely no one benefited, even the con men who stole the money for themselves, because none of it was spent well.
Racial reparations are worse because there are no articulable damages, you have no measure to declare how black someone is, you have no way of calculation who should get reparations, you have no way of calculating how much reparations should be given, and everything I just said will happen to blacks who get reparations as well.
Wait until a town hall meeting breaks out with someone screaming, "Fuck you bitch! You're West African! Pay me my money!"
This is a brilliant take on the scam of "reparations" for slavery with an actual real-world illustration of why the concept is unworkable, even if you accept the dodgy concept of generational or racial/collective guilt for history's atrocities.
In the end, absolutely no one benefited, even the con men who stole the money for themselves, because none of it was spent well.
Once again, I am reminded of the Chappelle routine--a guy buys a semi-truckload of Newports with his share.
Another good example are the results of people who win the lottery. Most of the time, their lives are destroyed, or they end up exactly back where they started before they won the lottery.
The terrible truth is, the reason people don't have money, is because using money not just responsibly, but effectively, is a skillset. And it's a skillset that poor people do not have. Worse, poor people have a different skillset that wealthier people also don't have. Different wealth classes require different kinds of skills.
As I've become middle class (from being under-class) my biggest difficulty is trying to stop "Living Poor" or "Thinking Poor" because it actually costs you money.
For example, I can live poor by saving literally everything, taking hand me down clothes, and repairing things myself. But when you keep living like that when you start getting more money coming in, you'll have money, but waste it buying tools to do things yourself or spending crazy amounts of time learning a new skill to solve a problem, or obsessing about trying to get the cheapest good rather than the best one. If you do it too much you stay poor because you don't step out of that mindset.
Meanwhile, a middle class person has to wield their money like a weapon by saving it until you have to hurl all of it at once, like maxing out your credit card to pay for a car rental and car repairs, but knowing you've saved enough to pay it off immediately. You'll also need to start thinking about how to "invest" your money as larger assets like property or homes, rather than even financial vehicles.
The skills that kept you alive in desperate times... now become your most self-sabotaging behavior. Brutal lesson. The worst is, you absolutely can't forget it. If you do, and you don't teach your kid, and they end up down there with no knowledge, they'll get stuck too! They'll have to learn everything all over again.
I've said it before: the Obama administration already tried a form of reparations in their best case scenario and it resulted in a complete fucking collapse of tribal governments and economies.
Many years ago, now, they settled a lawsuit with a multiplicity of tribal governments for $1.1 billion dollars for contract violations.
As the settlement checks went out, tribal governments begin to purity spiral with their own constituents. The term "tribal disenrollment" began to be used as tribal governments literally expelled political rivals and dissidents from tribes, which created massive political upheaval within them. Bizarre and arbitrary measures began to be imposed about who counted as a tribal member based on what evidence, and it quickly descended into infighting, nepotism, and cronyism. In some cases, political violence. As the checks became fewer and smaller, the problem got worse, as more people were removed from the tribal rolls to keep the same amount of money incoming to the government approved people.
Overall, the effective result of this reparations scheme, which had specific groups of people, who were alive, who had genuine contract violations done against them, for articulable damages, resulted in rampant crime, corruption, nepotism, political upheaval, and violence. In the end, absolutely no one benefited, even the con men who stole the money for themselves, because none of it was spent well.
Racial reparations are worse because there are no articulable damages, you have no measure to declare how black someone is, you have no way of calculation who should get reparations, you have no way of calculating how much reparations should be given, and everything I just said will happen to blacks who get reparations as well.
Wait until a town hall meeting breaks out with someone screaming, "Fuck you bitch! You're West African! Pay me my money!"
This is a brilliant take on the scam of "reparations" for slavery with an actual real-world illustration of why the concept is unworkable, even if you accept the dodgy concept of generational or racial/collective guilt for history's atrocities.
Once again, I am reminded of the Chappelle routine--a guy buys a semi-truckload of Newports with his share.
I haven't seen that one.
Another good example are the results of people who win the lottery. Most of the time, their lives are destroyed, or they end up exactly back where they started before they won the lottery.
The terrible truth is, the reason people don't have money, is because using money not just responsibly, but effectively, is a skillset. And it's a skillset that poor people do not have. Worse, poor people have a different skillset that wealthier people also don't have. Different wealth classes require different kinds of skills.
As I've become middle class (from being under-class) my biggest difficulty is trying to stop "Living Poor" or "Thinking Poor" because it actually costs you money.
For example, I can live poor by saving literally everything, taking hand me down clothes, and repairing things myself. But when you keep living like that when you start getting more money coming in, you'll have money, but waste it buying tools to do things yourself or spending crazy amounts of time learning a new skill to solve a problem, or obsessing about trying to get the cheapest good rather than the best one. If you do it too much you stay poor because you don't step out of that mindset.
Meanwhile, a middle class person has to wield their money like a weapon by saving it until you have to hurl all of it at once, like maxing out your credit card to pay for a car rental and car repairs, but knowing you've saved enough to pay it off immediately. You'll also need to start thinking about how to "invest" your money as larger assets like property or homes, rather than even financial vehicles.
The skills that kept you alive in desperate times... now become your most self-sabotaging behavior. Brutal lesson. The worst is, you absolutely can't forget it. If you do, and you don't teach your kid, and they end up down there with no knowledge, they'll get stuck too! They'll have to learn everything all over again.
This is a really perceptive comment. Thanks.
No problem, I hope it helps people.