The Conservative Case For Reparations

As many of you know, I am a conservative. For this reason, whenever I'm confronted with an issue, I will often take the most extreme conservative position. Admittedly, I do this because I'm usually misinformed about most issues, and when in doubt I assume that the right-wing perspective is more valid than any other perspective. Although that assumption often turns out to be true, there are exceptions. In particular, I want to look at reparations and provide a new perspective contrary to what many of my party believe.

First of all, allow me to lay out the history.

Discrimination has always existed, which in America most notably manifested in the laws of slavery and Jim Crow. Those laws reinforced the prevailing views of society, which at the time did not recognize certain groups, including blacks, as equal to other groups of people. The reason modern inequalities exist is because of those laws, which subjugated certain people, thereby denying them the opportunities that were afforded to most other people. For example, modern day poverty is at least in part an outgrowth of historic discrimination because of the laws associated with Jim Crow, which barred blacks from certain spheres of life, including many market goods and services, as well as the labor market. Similarly, crime rates are also associated with those laws, because crime flourishes in poverty.

We must acknowledge, though, that past-day instances of discrimination are unequivocally different from those that may occur today. Justice can only address an action exercised by one party against another party, and if neither of those parties exist, then justice cannot be administered. Also, those parties must not constitute an entire group of people because that would be an inherently racist notion, which would suggest that some people are victims because of their race, or that, conversely, some people are privileged because of their race. In other words, we should acknowledge that policies whose objectives rely on group calculations alone do not consider other externalities, including those that affect individuals who may not be part of the targeted group. Thus, justice in this sense cannot be administered even to those whose families were affected by slavery or Jim Crow, except for those whose family members are alive and who were affected.

For this reason, in my opinion reparations are in some circumstances warranted, but only insofar as they apply to individual circumstances. If a man who was alive during the early or mid-twentieth century was at some point discriminated against by law, then he should be owed some form of reparation.

In a society that enables its citizens to exchange freely, in a society in which men and women are able to pursue their own interests without threat on the basis of their natural status, our history must not absolve them of their poverty or criminal behavior. We are a free people, and those who were at some point denied the ability to share in our freedom must be accounted for by the very government that discriminated against them. Mind you, it should not be a federal prerogative unless the federal government was in some way involved, but rather one that applies to state governments that most notably partook in discrimination. The unjust denial of one's freedom must be rectified, and from thereon as long as our society remains free, a mere disparity should not imply a necessary action of justice, but discrimination must necessarily imply a response from our government.

Tl;dr

Did you pay someone to write this for you

BLOOM BERG will beat trump and win

作者： Witch-Doctor, 26.02.2020 at 10:13

Did you pay someone to write this for you

I am just an intelligent human bean

作者： Tribune Aquila, 26.02.2020 at 10:54

作者： Witch-Doctor, 26.02.2020 at 10:13

Did you pay someone to write this for you

I am just an intelligent human bean

I don't think that that was his intension

Sswofels, Blomberg will not beat trump, he wouldnt even get close.

The only one who will beat Trump, is Bernie Sanders.

作者： James Snow, 26.02.2020 at 11:43

Sswofels, Blomberg will not beat trump, he wouldnt even get close.

The only one who will beat Trump, is Bernie Sanders.

I think a 'might' is missing since trump is the favorite in any case

作者： Tribune Aquila, 26.02.2020 at 10:54

作者： Witch-Doctor, 26.02.2020 at 10:13

Did you pay someone to write this for you

I am just an intelligent human bean

Lettuce pray in your nam

作者： Helly, 26.02.2020 at 15:23

作者： Tribune Aquila, 26.02.2020 at 10:54

作者： Witch-Doctor, 26.02.2020 at 10:13

Did you pay someone to write this for you

I am just an intelligent human bean

Lettuce pray in your nam

Ramen

作者： Davy Jones, 26.02.2020 at 12:57

I think a 'might' is missing since trump is the favorite in any case

Trump has definitely risen in popularity because of the impeachment, but still has an under 50% popularity rating. The presidential election is probably 50% blue/50 % red at this point. Sanders and then Biden have the best shot of beating Trump.