Economist proposes slavery reparations of up to $12TRILLION - equivalent to $800,000 per black household or more than half of the American GDP
By Keith Griffith
Daily Mail
August 13, 2020
A prominent economist has laid out the
case for reparations for the black descendants of slaves in the U.S.,
estimating payments of up to $12 trillion would be needed to atone for
the historical injustice.
Duke University professor William Darity Jr and his wife Kirsten Mullen co-authored the report for the Roosevelt Institute arguing that the U.S. government should pay 'systemic reparations' for slavery.
It
comes amid fresh calls for reparations, with 142 members of Congress
backing a bill to study and put forward reparations proposals, and
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden voicing support for the idea.
In his report, Darity argues that reparations should be designed to
eliminate the gap in mean net worth between black and white households,
arriving at a figure of about $800,000 per black household as
sufficient.
The bold proposal is not without its
skeptics, however, as fiscal conservatives question whether the federal
government could shoulder the cost, which amounts to roughly half of
annual U.S. gross domestic product.
In
fiscal 2019, the government spent $4.4 trillion, amounting to 21
percent of the nation's $21 trillion GDP, with about $1 trillion of that
federal spending adding to the national debt.
'Our
national debt is already now up to around $26-27 trillion given the
money we're spending on Covid,' Michael Tanner, senior fellow at the
Cato Institute, told CNBC.
'And
we're losing more money because we're not picking up the revenue
because economic growth is so slow right now. This hardly seems the time
to burden the economy with more debt, more taxes. Essentially what you
want to do is stimulate economic growth for all our benefits,' he added
of reparations proposals.
Darity, however, argues that reparations for slavery are not only feasible, but necessary.
The Samuel
DuBois Cook distinguished professor of public policy at Duke's Sanford
School of Public Policy, Darity has devoted much of his career to
studying the rationale and design of reparations.
In
his new report, adapted from his book From Here to Equality:
Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, he argues
that only financial payments made by the government to the descendants
of slaves can provide acknowledgement, redress and closure for the crime
of slavery.
Though he does not provide a specific
timeline for the payments, Darity argues any reparations program should
be accomplished within a decade of commencing.
Darity
writes that eligibility for payments should be restricted to living
descendants of people who were enslaved in the U.S. prior to the Civil
War, who identified as black or African American on government documents
for at least 12 years prior to the reparations program.
'This
community's claim for restitution anchors on the US government's
failure to deliver the promised 40-acre land grants to their newly
emancipated ancestors in the aftermath of the Civil War,' he writes.
'That
failure laid the foundation for the enormous contemporary gap in wealth
between black and white people in the US,' he continues.
Darity
argues that it is key to prioritize the average wealth gap between
black and white households, rather that the gap between median figures
that is more typically discussed.
The
median figures more typically represent the average household, while the
average number is heavily skewed by the ultra-wealthy.
For
instance, the median white household net worth is $171,000, while the
average white household net worth, skewed by billionaires, is $929,800.
The
average black household net worth is $138,000, and Darity estimates
that payments of $800,000 would eliminate the 'the black-white (pre-tax)
wealth differential.'
'We estimate that this will require
an allocation between $10 and $12 trillion to eligible black Americans.
That allocation should serve as the baseline for black reparations in
the twenty-first century,' he writes.
The
idea of reparations for slavery remains politically unpopular - though
Darity argues that prior programs of reparations have been accomplished
despite being opposed by the majority of voters.
In June, an ABC News/Ipsos poll
found 73 percent of people think the federal government should not 'pay
money to black Americans whose ancestors were slaves as compensations
for that slavery'.
Only about one in eight white Americans support reparations compared to three-quarters of African Americans.
Democrats
are split on reparations, with 54 percent in favor and 45 percent
opposed. The vast majority of Republicans oppose the move at 94 percent,
and 82 percent of Independents were also opposed.
EDITOR'S NOTE: With a harebrained professor like Darity on its faculty, Duke should be renamed Duck University.
I am in favor of reparations, but only to the freed slaves and their children.
EDITOR'S NOTE: With a harebrained professor like Darity on its faculty, Duke should be renamed Duck University.
I am in favor of reparations, but only to the freed slaves and their children.
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