On Reparations to Blacks for Slavery

From: TG
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2016 1:31 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Question about Reparations. You said: “You are not responsible for any of your “father’s” horrific crimes. It is only if he gave you any of the proceeds of his criminality that you must return them.” I cannot find any reason to disagree with your above statement. But I believe the reparations argument is different. The descendants of the victims of slavery are requesting restoration of inheritance from several generations before. But if nothing was bequeathed to their fathers from their grandfathers from their great grandfathers from their great great grandfathers, what claim do they really have? If I go to the casino and gamble away my wealth, or have it taken by a swindler, or lose it in bad investments before I ever bequeath it, how could my great great grand child have possibly any claim to recover it? There is no guarantee that even a child of a slave would have been bequeathed his parent’s wealth had he even received it, Furthermore, the descendants of slaves, several generations removed…
1. Were not, themselves, a victim of any crime.
2. Could not possibly have any certainty that their slave ancestor would have bequeathed anything that would have been passed on to them.
For me, the notion that I am entitled to any of even my father’s wealth, let alone my grandfather’s, great grandfather’s, or great great grand father’s, stolen or not, seems illogical and un-libertarian. Additionally, if the question of restitution can be carried on from generation to generation, in perpetuity, how could we possibly ever get along with one another peaceably? Everyone can identify some race or tribe that wronged their ancient ancestors at some point in antiquity. Mexicans, for instance, are of mixed ancestry–Spanish and Mestizo. Who would they redress their grievances to? Do they “owe” themselves? Please show me the error in my logic. Respectfully, TG Thank you, Walter.

From: Walter Block
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2016 4:02 PM
To: TG
Subject: RE: Question about Reparations

Dear TG: See my pubs on this subject, below. I think I do reply to your objections there.

From: TG
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2016 11:29 PM
To: Walter Block
Subject: Re: Question about Reparations. I had the chance to read “On Reparations to Blacks for Slavery.” I see the logic in all your rebuttals of Horowitz, but I am still hung up on one key point. The pro-reparations argument seems to always revert back to “inheritance”, as if it is a given that property would be bequeathed. I think it is reasonable and rational and fair that if a person who owns a watch, to use Rothbard’s example, then has it stolen, may still bequeath it to his known heir, a specific real person(s), in hopes of it being recovered some day. That known heir would hold title to the bequeathed watch. But if the watch is never recovered, and the heir never possesses it, how can he then bequeath it to his heir, the grandson for instance? He never possessed it. If the heir (the son) did recover it, what certainty is their that he wouldn’t have sold it or lost it before he bequeathed it to the grandson? Who’s to say he would have even bequeathed it to a specific grandson? Perhaps the only grandson fell out of favor with his father and was written out of his will, altogether. Just because my father has property doesn’t mean I am entitled to it. What if my father willed everything to a church or his second wife? It seems to me that when inheritance is extrapolated over several generations, the claim seems to me to become even more spurious. The subsequent “heirs” are unlikely to even have any watch bequeathed too them at all, not even in “absentia”, I think I understand your solution in which you seem to propose that stolen property is passed on by virtue of record-keeping entries, but I think it should go further than that. I think the record keeping should require that the specific stolen property be bequeathed. At least then, any heir along the way could at least know what their specific claim is and maybe even sell the title at a discount if they don’t think they will ever recover it. That seems reasonable to me. Short of that, after the immediate, named heir is gone, the property becomes homesteaded. Kind regards, TG

Dear TG:

Where we disagree, I think, is that I assume that in the absence of any will, parents leave their possessions to their children, and then this wealth goes to their grand children, great grandchildren, etc. You are not willing to make this assumption, which I think quite reasonable. If someone dies intestate, you are quite right: there is no guarantee that this capital would have been transferred in this path. But, I think that this is the most reasonable presumption, your not unreasonable exceptions to this rule notwithstanding.

Alston and Block, 2007; Block, 1993, 2001, 2002; Block and Yeatts, 1999-2000

Alston, Wilton D. and Walter E. Block. 2007. “Reparations, Once Again.” Human Rights Review, Vol. 9, No. 3, September, pp. 379-392; http://tinyurl.com/2b75fl

Block, Walter E. 1993. “Malcolm X,” Fraser Forum, January, pp. 18-19; http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/5361.aspx

Block, Walter E. 2001. “The Moral Dimensions of Poverty, Entitlements and Theft,” The Journal of Markets and Morality, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 83-93; http://www.acton.org/publicat/m_and_m/2001_spring/block.html; http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=922087; http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketsandmorality.com%2Findex.php%2Fmandm%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F587%2F577&ei=lBn9UuLIOtDOkQe1toHwBw&usg=AFQjCNF2MZ5XoFKKMF5UcOfOT5Kv-HQgZA&sig2=VVYWZhyl0ZmAWRAKXtkxWw

Block, Walter E. 2002. “On Reparations to Blacks for Slavery,” Human Rights Review, Vol. 3, No. 4, July-September, pp. 53-73;
http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/reparations_slavery.pdf

Block, Walter E. and Guillermo Yeatts. 1999-2000. “The Economics and Ethics of Land Reform: A Critique of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s ‘Toward a Better Distribution of Land: The Challenge of Agrarian Reform,’” Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Law, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 37-69; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/ethics_land_reform.pdf

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5:41 pm on August 27, 2016