So: they want to convince refugees and immigrants, who arrived penniless in the West over the last 100 years, to pay reparations to people who were never slaves, and who had the same economic opportunities as said refugees and immigrants?
Good luck with that!
AndyF
When some idiot is putting a figure on the UK reparations that is slightly more than the UK household wealth the likely responses are loosing your rag or hysterical laughter.
MC
As (IIRC) you’ve said before, the correct response to demands for reparations is “piss off”.
Bongo
There’s a small number of Brits and Americans alive who had to do compulsory national service, many black especially in the USA. There might be a measurable difference in economic outcomes for them compared to not being slaves to the State for that period, even adjusted for educational achievement.
If so, that’s where the calculations of harm and the debate should start.
But no-one is interested and I can’t imagine why.
dearieme
On the whole the descendants of the African slaves transported to “the West” are a burden on the rest of us – much as if they levied a tax by their crime, dole-bludging, and so on. It’s particularly noticeable in the US because they make up about 14% of the population there but it’s been obvious here since the Jamaicans and so forth started turning up in large numbers after The War.
The question is – who should pay us reparations for this burden? The obvious answer is the descendants of those Africans who enslaved the ancestors of the African-Americans and so on, and sold them to the white slave-traders. How shall we identify those descendants? We can’t, so we should demand the reparations from the whole current population of West Africa, the Congo, …
We could always temper the indignity by calling the reparations “foreign aid”, eh?
Ducky McDuckface
Lost your rag?
I’m sure I’ve heard of some sort of arrangement whereby you can get a fresh one for nowt.
PJF
Did you mention lions?
philip
Sell some Benin bronzes on the open market. Then we’re done.
philip
@dearieme
Nearly everyone is a burden on the rest of us. A diminishing proportion of us is funding the others.
(Wot did that Einstein bloke do for me? A bludger with a “professorship” on the public dole. Not to mention that Isiah Berlin fellow, or Clarence Thomas, or…)
bis will be along in a minute.
Grist
Yes!!!!
Retaliation against the Race Grifters!!
YouTube here I come!
Arthur the Cat
I find it interesting that the term used is “reparations” as opposed to “compensation”. The latter is payment for loss, the former is tribute demanded by the victor in a war from the loser.
Baron_Jackfield
If, in a moment of insanity, you see some merit in paying these “reparations”, how far back in time and geography do you go?
ISTR reading that the total number of Europeans taken as slaves by the Barbary mob outnumbers those of tinted hue shipped over to the West Indies and America – obviously there are no untinted descendants of those poor benighted souls as the males were routinely castrated – but “it’s the principle of the thing” that counts, so where do my West-country-descended folk go to get their money?
Obviously Italy is going to get hit bigtime, ditto Greece…
OTOH far better to call it all a load of bollocks, explain to those of the tinted persuasion that they are far better off now than their un-transported kin in Africa and tell them that if they want money, to get off their arses and get a job.
jgh
No, “compensation” means “payment”. Full stop. If I work, I am compensated with wages. If my house is compulsarily purchased, I am compensated by being paid for it. It’s only because payment for loss caused by damages is *also* a payment, and so is also called “compensation” that people think “compensation” is reparation for damages and you have morons screaming about slave owners being “compensated”. Of course they were bloody compensated, the standard way of liberating slaves is to buy the damn things.
So: they want to convince refugees and immigrants, who arrived penniless in the West over the last 100 years, to pay reparations to people who were never slaves, and who had the same economic opportunities as said refugees and immigrants?
Good luck with that!
When some idiot is putting a figure on the UK reparations that is slightly more than the UK household wealth the likely responses are loosing your rag or hysterical laughter.
As (IIRC) you’ve said before, the correct response to demands for reparations is “piss off”.
There’s a small number of Brits and Americans alive who had to do compulsory national service, many black especially in the USA. There might be a measurable difference in economic outcomes for them compared to not being slaves to the State for that period, even adjusted for educational achievement.
If so, that’s where the calculations of harm and the debate should start.
But no-one is interested and I can’t imagine why.
On the whole the descendants of the African slaves transported to “the West” are a burden on the rest of us – much as if they levied a tax by their crime, dole-bludging, and so on. It’s particularly noticeable in the US because they make up about 14% of the population there but it’s been obvious here since the Jamaicans and so forth started turning up in large numbers after The War.
The question is – who should pay us reparations for this burden? The obvious answer is the descendants of those Africans who enslaved the ancestors of the African-Americans and so on, and sold them to the white slave-traders. How shall we identify those descendants? We can’t, so we should demand the reparations from the whole current population of West Africa, the Congo, …
We could always temper the indignity by calling the reparations “foreign aid”, eh?
Lost your rag?
I’m sure I’ve heard of some sort of arrangement whereby you can get a fresh one for nowt.
Did you mention lions?
Sell some Benin bronzes on the open market. Then we’re done.
@dearieme
Nearly everyone is a burden on the rest of us. A diminishing proportion of us is funding the others.
(Wot did that Einstein bloke do for me? A bludger with a “professorship” on the public dole. Not to mention that Isiah Berlin fellow, or Clarence Thomas, or…)
bis will be along in a minute.
Yes!!!!
Retaliation against the Race Grifters!!
YouTube here I come!
I find it interesting that the term used is “reparations” as opposed to “compensation”. The latter is payment for loss, the former is tribute demanded by the victor in a war from the loser.
If, in a moment of insanity, you see some merit in paying these “reparations”, how far back in time and geography do you go?
ISTR reading that the total number of Europeans taken as slaves by the Barbary mob outnumbers those of tinted hue shipped over to the West Indies and America – obviously there are no untinted descendants of those poor benighted souls as the males were routinely castrated – but “it’s the principle of the thing” that counts, so where do my West-country-descended folk go to get their money?
Obviously Italy is going to get hit bigtime, ditto Greece…
OTOH far better to call it all a load of bollocks, explain to those of the tinted persuasion that they are far better off now than their un-transported kin in Africa and tell them that if they want money, to get off their arses and get a job.
No, “compensation” means “payment”. Full stop. If I work, I am compensated with wages. If my house is compulsarily purchased, I am compensated by being paid for it. It’s only because payment for loss caused by damages is *also* a payment, and so is also called “compensation” that people think “compensation” is reparation for damages and you have morons screaming about slave owners being “compensated”. Of course they were bloody compensated, the standard way of liberating slaves is to buy the damn things.
I thought Tim’s opening remark about “You can’t compensate someone for making them better off” was right on the mark though.
I’m stealing that one Timmy.