(07-12-2019 09:04 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Furthermore, is there even evidence that reparations would work?

Comments on three levels:
- As a practical matter, I believe that (1) that's the crux of the matter, and (2) the answer is almost certainly no. As one reference, my friends in the plaintiff's bar have a good deal of experience with the impact of monetary compensation on people who have been wronged. Their overwhelming experience is that for poorer plaintiffs, unless the compensation is put in a trust fund administered by a professional manager, the money is almost always obliterated in short order, with no long-term improvement in the person's qualify of life. I will leave it to others to assess how the proponents of "reparations" would react to a requirement for professionally-managed trust funds.

- Politically, I doubt that the question of effectiveness matters at all. The proponents of "reparations" likely give a damn about whether the net effect would improve the lives of any disadvantaged person of any race, creed, color, sex or national origin. They beiieve it would buy their votes, and that's all that matters.

- I doubt that effectiveness matters to them ideologically either. In most cases of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the effect on Paul is largely irrelevant to the proponents; what matters is taking from Peter. The act of taking is itself the goal; the glee of exercising the power to take is itself the reward.

In sum, it probably wouldn't do any good, and whether it would do good is politically irrelevant and ideologically not the point. Which all but guarantees that it will be considered a slam-dunk idea in certain quarters!