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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   29327 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023

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Yes, I am sure that is the point, and it is an extremely dubious one, but it still seems to me that the relative contribution compared to some hypothetical alternative is not particularly relevant.

Eg: Years ago, I made a bunch of money in the stock market, based on recommendation from a friend. That friend deserves my thanks, and perhaps even recompense (reparations, if you will), even if some other person might have given me even better advice. My friend provided me a service, at my behest, just as slaves did. Was their contribution enough, and their subsequent recompense sufficiently meager, such that reparations are in order? I don't know; I rather doubt it, and IMHO a much better argument for reparations is re post-Civil War treatment of African-Americans, or based on equities unrelated to the extent of slaves' economic contributions. However, it certainly does not make sense to me to enslave someone for 20 years, and then when they ask for a share of my profits, respond, "But, I now realize that my business would have been even more profitable, had I relied on free labor." That does not seem to me to be a very compelling argument.

Years ago, I made a bunch of money in the stock market, based on recommendation from a friend. That friend deserves my thanks, and perhaps even recompense (reparations, if you will), even if some other person might have given me even better advice.

Let's say your friend tells you to buy Apple stock and you make a 3% return. But the market as a whole went up 5% in the same period. If you had just given no thought to the matter and bought a total stock market index fund like VTSAX, you would have performed better. In that case, I don't think it's correct to say your friend deserves any thanks or credit for his recommendation. He didn't really help you in any meaningful way, since your default option was better than his suggestion.

Yes, but who says that using free market labor was the default option? Apparently, it wasn't, at least in the eyes of the landowners at the time. Moreover. they went out and compelled Africans to come to the US to work. As I said, " it certainly does not make sense to me to enslave someone for 20 years, and then when they ask for a share of my profits, respond, "But, I now realize that my business would have been even more profitable, had I relied on free labor." That does not seem to me to be a very compelling argument."

However, it certainly does not make sense to me to enslave someone for 20 years, and then when they ask for a share of my profits

That analogy doesn't fit the question. Blacks benefit from America being prosperous. (Or if they don't, it's because of factors other than slavery.) There's no share of your profits to ask for. There's a share of a pool, but the money would have ended up in the pool whether you enslaved anyone or not.

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