- 07 Jul 2020 06:35
#15105738
All Confederates were/are pardoned traitors.
If not officially pardoned, then functionally.
This means they should not be honored now.
There is no sense in which their cause was just. They said straight out that their cause was to keep slavery.
This is not a "just cause". "States Rights" is just a later excuse. Keeping slavery was their true reason for the war.
Now, in the 21st Cent. in the 3rd Millennium you-all need to grok that your ancestors were functionally pardoned. That the alternative was mass executions. That many nations have done just that after a civil war. So, be thankful you are alive because your ancestors were not executed.
. . . While being thankful, you need the grok that the fundamental FOUNDING principle of the United States *IS* "all men are created equal".
Therefore, you-all need to change your thinking. Black Americans are equal to White Americans, period.
On the issue of Reparations these are my thoughts.
1] Current White Americans are not to blame for slavery, no matter how hugely EVIL it was, period.
2] By 1865 (yes 1865) White Americans had paid a price in blood to end slavery. Their descendants should not be held to account now for slavery. The whites of the 1860s paid that debt with their blood.
3] Current White Americans are somewhat to blame for Jim Crow that did not officially end until about 1965 and for the lingering racial discrimination that still exists.
4] Therefore, current US Gov. should pay reparations to current Black Americans for Jim Crow, not for slavery.
Why? -- For example, economics Prof. Mark Blyth quotes a paper by the Boston Fed. Res. Bank that in Boston [now] the math average net worth of whites or White families in Boston is $247K, while the net worth of Black Boston families is $8 (yes $8.00). This is a huge difference [$8 X 30,875 = $247, so 31K times more]. It can be assumed to be totally (at least 90%, the other 10% the head start some whites got from wealth in 1865) the result of racism and Jim Crow for the last 155 years. [All my grandparents came over in about 1897 or so. People like me are descended from people who had nothing when they arrived. There a lot of whites like me include in the average white families above.]
White People --- do NOT be alarmed. When the US Gov. spends it doesn't spend tax dollars. Just like a bank making a loan, the US Gov. creates every dollar it spends. Therefore, there is no need to raise taxes on White people to pay the Reparations. The only things White people need to do are let it happen and deal with any small amount of inflation it causes. Inflation is the only possible negative effect on whites.
. . . [See my many posts about MMT in Credit and Debt, Economics and Capitalism, and Political Circus for how the Gov. spends, why the deficit is a good thing, and why the national "debt" is really the assets of the bond holders and this debt can never be paid off except with newly created dollars that don't come from taxpayers.]
Since I categorically reject the notion that all people should be selfish and do what is best for them and this will result in the best outcome for everyone, and believe instead in the fairness I learned from my mother, from my kindergarten teacher, and from my church; I can accept and even call for such Reparations in the name of "Fairness".
.
If not officially pardoned, then functionally.
This means they should not be honored now.
There is no sense in which their cause was just. They said straight out that their cause was to keep slavery.
This is not a "just cause". "States Rights" is just a later excuse. Keeping slavery was their true reason for the war.
Now, in the 21st Cent. in the 3rd Millennium you-all need to grok that your ancestors were functionally pardoned. That the alternative was mass executions. That many nations have done just that after a civil war. So, be thankful you are alive because your ancestors were not executed.
. . . While being thankful, you need the grok that the fundamental FOUNDING principle of the United States *IS* "all men are created equal".
Therefore, you-all need to change your thinking. Black Americans are equal to White Americans, period.
On the issue of Reparations these are my thoughts.
1] Current White Americans are not to blame for slavery, no matter how hugely EVIL it was, period.
2] By 1865 (yes 1865) White Americans had paid a price in blood to end slavery. Their descendants should not be held to account now for slavery. The whites of the 1860s paid that debt with their blood.
3] Current White Americans are somewhat to blame for Jim Crow that did not officially end until about 1965 and for the lingering racial discrimination that still exists.
4] Therefore, current US Gov. should pay reparations to current Black Americans for Jim Crow, not for slavery.
Why? -- For example, economics Prof. Mark Blyth quotes a paper by the Boston Fed. Res. Bank that in Boston [now] the math average net worth of whites or White families in Boston is $247K, while the net worth of Black Boston families is $8 (yes $8.00). This is a huge difference [$8 X 30,875 = $247, so 31K times more]. It can be assumed to be totally (at least 90%, the other 10% the head start some whites got from wealth in 1865) the result of racism and Jim Crow for the last 155 years. [All my grandparents came over in about 1897 or so. People like me are descended from people who had nothing when they arrived. There a lot of whites like me include in the average white families above.]
White People --- do NOT be alarmed. When the US Gov. spends it doesn't spend tax dollars. Just like a bank making a loan, the US Gov. creates every dollar it spends. Therefore, there is no need to raise taxes on White people to pay the Reparations. The only things White people need to do are let it happen and deal with any small amount of inflation it causes. Inflation is the only possible negative effect on whites.
. . . [See my many posts about MMT in Credit and Debt, Economics and Capitalism, and Political Circus for how the Gov. spends, why the deficit is a good thing, and why the national "debt" is really the assets of the bond holders and this debt can never be paid off except with newly created dollars that don't come from taxpayers.]
Since I categorically reject the notion that all people should be selfish and do what is best for them and this will result in the best outcome for everyone, and believe instead in the fairness I learned from my mother, from my kindergarten teacher, and from my church; I can accept and even call for such Reparations in the name of "Fairness".
.