“Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supports issuing reparations to the black community, making him the most prominent 2024 candidate to favor the controversial policy,” reports the New York Post:
Kennedy — who ditched his Democratic primary challenge to Biden earlier this month — has spoken out in favor of issuing federal dollars to “rebuild black infrastructure” like banks and businesses, and as well as “direct redress payments or tax credits”….
“These programs complement direct redress payments or tax credits to the descendants of the victims of Jim Crow and other victims of persecution,” the pledge continues. “RFK Jr. will find ways to offer this redress that … win the approval of Americans of all races.”
No country has successfully pursued a policy of race-based reparations. The African nation of Zimbabwe pursued a policy of reparations. It wrecked its economy by doing so, resulting in hyperinflation and leaving even its black population worse off.
Reparations would cost taxpayers a lot. It’s “a policy that experts say could cost several trillion dollars,” according to the New York Times. Black law professors have argued to the United Nations that the United States should pay black people $200 trillion, which is more than seven times larger than the entire U.S. economy.
Reparations could easily bankrupt the U.S. government, which currently is running a budget deficit of over $2 trillion, one of the largest budget deficits ever. A bankrupt government could not defend the country or pay social security checks.
Reparations activists want blacks to receive enough reparations to eliminate the gap in wealth between blacks and whites. They mistakenly assume that gap is the result of racism. But it isn’t. Racial gaps in incomes and wealth exist for reasons other than racism.
Slavery and discrimination are not the cause of present-day racial disparities in wealth. Most wealth is not inherited, and most of the wealth gap between whites and blacks is not due to inherited wealth. Non-white immigrants from Africa and Asia commonly earn more than whites do, showing that racism is not a barrier to success. Asian Americans have the highest average net worth and highest average income, despite harsh discrimination against Chinese and Japanese Americans in the past.
Past discrimination did not cause present-day racial disparities in wealth or income. Asians once experienced far worse housing discrimination than blacks in California, yet they have much higher incomes and more assets. As the New York Post notes, “several historically marginalized groups out-perform whites today. Take Japanese Americans, for example: For nearly four decades in the 20th century (1913 – 1952), this group was legally prevented from owning land and property in over a dozen American states [including California]. Moreover, 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned during World War II,” which forced many interned Japanese people to sell their businesses at fire-sale prices, ruining them. “But by 1959, the income disparity between Japanese Americans and white Americans nearly vanished. Today, Japanese Americans outperform whites by large margins in income statistics, education outcomes, test scores, and incarceration rates.”
If reparations are awarded to black people, other groups will line up to demand reparations, too, further increasing their cost to taxpayers. For example, reparations may also end up being paid to sexual minorities, as left-leaning governments have already done in foreign countries. In 2019, Argentina’s Neuquén province provided pensions to transgender individuals over 40 as a form of reparations. Uruguay and Argentina reserve some government jobs for transgender people as a form of reparations.
Reparations may not fix the racial “wealth gap” anyway. Many people just spend windfalls they receive from the government, rather than saving or investing the money. When Uganda seized the businesses of Indian immigrants without compensation and gave them to blacks as reparations for colonialism, the businesses did not last for long afterwards, and Uganda’s economy collapsed. When Uganda let Indians come back to Uganda and set up businesses again 14 years later, Indians once again ended up dominating Uganda’s economy and owning much of its wealth, even though they had to start from scratch. That shows that racial disparities in wealth exist for reasons other than racism.
Many congressional Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, support reparations. “During the 2020 presidential primaries, nearly all the Democratic candidates were favorably inclined,” reported the National Review.
