Horowitz/Reparations for slavery

[Gordon Fitch]

> > There is a distinct advantage in basing reparations on slavery
> > in that (1) slavery can be fairly precisely defined and its
> > worth (as lost wages) evaluated, whereas segregation and
> > discrimination cannot; (2) there are surviving parties who
> > can be held legally responsible for slavery, to wit, the United
> > States government and the governments of the several states
> > which supported slavery prior to the Civil War (all or most
> > of those then in existence), whereas much of segregation and
> > discrimination was (and is) carried out privately by persons
> > who are now [ mostly ] dead.

berlin at socrates.Berkeley.EDU:
> I don't have a legal background, but it seems to me that the legal case
> for basing reparations would be weaker because the individuals are dead,
> and then people who have a grandmother who was into genealogy as a hobby
> would be benefitted, while those who don't know would not qualify. And
> records on names of slaves were never particularly good. People's last
> names were changed all of the time.

If genealogy becomes worth $200,000 a head, there will be a
mighty study of it.  People could be considered the descendants
of slaves through such of their ancestors as were known to be
of African descent in, say, 1900; there were very few Africans
of other origin in the U.S. at that time.  In any case, the
generalogies would be a matter of public legal process, not
someoone's hobby.


> I think corporations shown to benefit should pay, but because genealogy
> probably couldn't be sorted out, the general fund idea seems like it would
> be best. 

If you're talking about slavery, I don't know of any
corporations which existed prior to the Civil War.  The only
enduring bodies seem to be the Federal and state
governments.

In the case of a general fund, it will still be necessary
to identify individuals who are going to be beneficiaries.
If they are not identified by specific descent, then a great
can of worms will be opened, to wit, the question of who is
Black.  Moreover, a general fund will be very susceptible
to manipulation and theft.  I can easily see billions, nay,
trillions being siphoned off by bureaucrats, corporate
apparatchiks, lawyers, politicians, "leaders", and the like,
without even momentarily touching the hands of those for whom
it was intended.

Another possibility would be equal distribution to some set of
qualifying persons; but we would still have the problem of
identifying the set of beneficiaries.


> However, has there ever been a class action suit based on people denied
> the right to vote in 1960? That should have some estimable cash
> value. Same with being denied access to a school or right to do
> business. It wasn't clear what value Rodney King having his civil rights
> violated should be, but he still won an award and they came up with a
> number.

But in this case we have thirty million plaintiffs, not one.
Awards multiplied by such a number will inspire bitter 
parsimony.


> ...