Democrats frequently talk about reparations for black
Americans, compensation for slavery and Jim Crow. Indeed, House member Cori Bush recently
proposed $14
trillion as a good place to start.
Any reparations plan would be extraordinarily complex. First, if reparations are
to be paid, to whom would they be paid?To
every one of America’s 45 million blacks? (2020
Census) Including the 4.5 million
blacks who immigrated after Jim Crow was gone?Should the 33 million black Americans aged 50 or below who have only
lived after passage of the Voting and Civil Rights Acts?How about black families whose ancestors lived
in northern states where slavery was largely outlawed before America was a nation
and Jim Crow never existed?How about
blacks from states like California and Idaho who had neither slavery nor Jim
Crow?Or those of mixed origins with one
black parent?Is one black grandparent
sufficient or would it have to be at least 2 of 4?Do black families who earn $200,000 a year
still qualify for reparations?How about
America’s 1.5
million black millionaires?
The next question is, if indeed reparations were to be paid,
who would pay them? America has approximately 250 million white people. Would all
of them have to pay? Even those whose ancestors arrived after passage of the
Civil and Voting Rights Acts or whose ancestors arrived after the Civil War, as
many Italians and Irish did? Do the 155 million or so who are 50 or younger and
were born after Jim Crow was history? How about those descended from one of the
360,000 white Northern soldiers who lost their lives fighting to end slavery?
Or those who live in states that never had slavery or Jim Crow? Do the whites
of Wyoming, where the black population is 0.9% pay the same as Louisiana where
it’s 31%?
Once we’ve nailed down who’s going to get reparations and
who’s going to pay them, then we have to figure out how much.For the sake of argument, let’s take Bush’s
$14 trillion.That works out to $311,000
to every black American. Again, for argument’s sake, let’s say that all 250
million of the whites would be responsible for making the reparation.If required to make that payment, that would
involve every single white person (including babies and retirees) to write a
check for about $56,000.That’s unlikely
to be feasible given that the average median white household income in the US
is $78,000.
So, if writing a check is out of the question, maybe setting up a payment plan,
sort of like a mortgage.Spreading the $56,0600
out over 15 years at today’s 6.7% interest rate would make for a monthly
payment of $494 per white person. That doesn’t seem too unreasonable, but what
about unemployed whites or those on government assistance?Do they pay?What about white kids too young to work?Do they pay or do their obligations accrue until they turn 18 or get
their first job?Then of course, who do
they make those checks out to?Do the
white people get to choose which black people they pay?Or do they make the payment to a pool to be
distributed by some upstanding organization that represents black people like
the NAACP or BLM or the National Action Network? Are the payments tax
deductable? Maybe let the IRS collect the money and have the government
distribute it. Would the government need to set up a Department of Reparations
to keep the money separate from the rest of the government’s funds? Or maybe
the government can pay the whole sum up front and bill the white people. Would
individual black people have claim on individual white people’s property if
they didn’t or couldn’t pay?Would jails
become debtor’s prisons full of people who can’t pay?
Assuming all of that gets figured out, are new black babies
entitled to reparations?If yes, for how
long? Will black babies born in 2075 still be eligible for payments and white ones
still obligated to pay? Is it in perpetuity or will it only last 100
years?If new black babies are not
eligible, how would mom explain to junior that he doesn’t get the $311,000 his
brother did just because he was born 12 months later?If a black woman is pregnant when the
agreement is made, does she collect for only herself or for her baby too?
At the end of the day reparations are made for some wrong
done… but what if the result of that wrong left the progeny of the person
wronged better off than had the wrong not been done in the first place.Is it possible that reparations aren’t really
due?
Approximately
400,000 blacks were brought to the United States as slaves. We assume that
had they not been sold into slavery they would likely have stayed where they
lived. So, one might ask, would the progeny of those slaves have been better
off in those home countries than they are here as a result of their ancestors
being sold into slavery?First, let’s
look at incomes. We’ll look at the per
person median income (PPMI) in the top 10 modern nations encompassing
the places from which those blacks were taken. (see nearby chart)
The average among those 10 nations is $950 per year.This compares to a median income for black
Americans of $13,108 per person. ($19,306
average American X .67)
But of course money isn’t everything, right? How about life
expectancy?In those same 10 nations the
life
expectancies average 61.6, compared to the United States where the average life
expectancy of black Americans is 75.1 years.
PPMI
Life Expt.
Angola:
$665
62.3
Congo (DR):
$392
62.4
Cameroon:
$1,245
60.9
Nigeria:
$825
52.9
Guinea:
$876
60.7
Sierra Leone:
$765
60.1
Gambia:
$1,383
63.8
Liberia:
$753
61.1
Mauritania:
1,760
64.5
Senegal:
$844
67.6
Average:
$950.80
61.6
Black Americans
$13,108
75.1
So black Americans have incomes that are 13 times higher than
individuals living in the nations from which slaves were brought to America.
They also have life expectancies that are 14 years, or 22% longer. What’s more,
Americans have freedoms found in none of those countries; they also have levels
of entertainment, transportation, food, shelter, leisure, medicines, job
opportunities and democracy that citizens of those nations can only dream
of.
As such, it appears that black American descendants of
slaves are actually far better off because their ancestors left Africa in
bondage and landed in the United States.Indeed, had their ancestors been taken to Brazil,
where the largest
number of blacks landed, they might not have survived to procreate because
death rates were staggeringly high, or to the middle east where the men
were castrated and babies born to black slaves were killed at birth, which
explains a dearth of blacks in the middle east despite importing more slaves
than the Americas.
But the relevant progeny for this discussion were brought to
the United States, and it appears that they are much better off than the
descendents of those who were left behind.If that were not the case, one would expect that blacks unhappy with
America would willingly emigrate to the nations from which their ancestors
came. But that never quite happens does it? Which begs the question, given that
no one alive today was either a slave or owned slaves and most of the progeny of
slaves are exponentially better off than they would have been had their
ancestors not been taken to America in the first place, exactly why are
reparations warranted?
In fact, they’re not, and that’s the point.It’s not reparations that are being demanded,
it’s revenge, which is a completely different thing altogether…
This past summer there were a lot of American flags ripped,
walked on and set on fire around the country.Protesters pulled down statues, looted stores and set buildings on fire
across the country.They claim that
America is racist.They claim Donald
Trump is a fascist.They suggest
Capitalism is a cancer and must be replaced.And the Constitution, as it has been a tool of oppression since its
writing, must be eliminated.
To listen to protesters speak, the United States is a
cesspool of racism and oppression where only the rich thrive.
Maybe they’re right.Maybe America is nothing but one large work camp where citizens are
oppressed by their overlords where they have no freedoms and experience a
quality of life that is something out of Dickens. Maybe…
If that’s true, it should be easy to spot.Below are a variety of tables listing measures
of life ranked by country.The sources
for each set of data is different but most evaluate between 180 & 210
countries, depending on how that term is defined.
So what do the data say about this fascist, oppressive American
country? Well, as a journalist might say... lets's go to the data.
How about we start off with the basics… Life
Expectancy.Below is a table of selected
countries for life expectancy.The world
average is 72.6 and the United States comes in at 78.9, putting it solidly in
the top 25%.That’s not terrible.
Then of course there’s earning a living.Below is a table with the average incomes
around the world and the United States comes in at #5, with not a single
country above the United States having more people than the city of New York. That
matters of course because like herding cat, having a country where people are
spread out over vast areas, have extraordinarily different backgrounds and
heritages it’s far more difficult to get everyone on the same page in terms of
what works to achieve prosperity.America has done that.
And of course everyone talks about GDP, the sum of all of
the goods and services a nation produces. Below is a table of the 15 nations
with the largest GDPs in the world.The
United States, with 5% of the planet’s population produces 24% of the world’s
economic output:
Another way of looking at this is GDP on a per capita
basis.Here too none of the nations
above the United States has a population above that of New York.Again, none of the other countries on this
list comes close to being similar to the United States in terms of size and
diversity of our population, and with only Australia being similar when
compared to geographic footprint.
Of course it’s not all about income, it’s about what you can
do with that income.Below is a table showing
the top 20 countries (out of 101) based on the cost of living which measures
what one can actually purchase with the money they earn.And the United States comes in at 4.
Most of us work for a living and sometimes things work out
well and we accumulate significant assets, making us millionaires!Sadly, I’m not one of them, but there are a
LOT of millionaires in the United States.As a matter of fact, the United States, which again is 5% of the world’s
population, is the home of fully 40% of the world’s millionaires:
Millionaires: (in thousands)
1
United
States
18,614
2
China
4,447
3
Japan
3,025
4
United
Kingdom
2,460
5
Germany
2,187
6
France
2,071
7
Italy
1,496
8
Canada
1,322
9
Australia
1,180
10
Spain
979
11
Netherlands
832
12
Switzerland
810
13
India
759
14
South
Korea
741
15
Taiwan
528
And not only that, the number of millionaires as a
percentage of the population is higher in the United States than any nation on
the planet other than Switzerland… but in our defense, Switzerland has really
good chocolate.
Particularly important in this discussion is who those
millionaires are.The makeup of American
millionaires is below.Minorities,
making up 40% of the nation’s population, make up 24% of the millionaires.
And what’s equally important about achieving economic success is mobility into
America’s economic elite.Forbes, which
publishes its annual Forbes 400 chronicling the 400 richest Americans reports
that fully 70% of America’s richest individuals are self made while only 30%
inherited their fortunes.
American Millionaires By Race (and Population Race
Breakdown):
But of course not everyone will end up millionaires, but
opportunities exist nonetheless.Below
is a table that chronicles social mobility, which is roughly characterized as
the ability to move from one economic level to another.Of the approximately 180 countries in the
world this table looks at the 82 with the most measurable opportunities.The average of these 82 countries is 62.2,
and the United States comes in position of 27 with a mobility score of 70.4,
while Denmark is first with a score of 85.2 and Côte d’Ivoire is last with a
score of 34.5.A significant element of
this measure is education and healthcare, both of which drag down the United
States significantly thanks to excessive government intervention.
The reality of the fact that government intervention in
healthcare and education handicap the country is be demonstrated by the
following table that looks at the ease of doing business.This metric includes starting a business as
one of its measures, along with things like regulations, taxes, rule of law and
others.Starting a business is one of
the most effective ways in which one might improve their family’s economic
situation.To the degree that the United
States is ranked sixth out of 180 nations in terms of the ease of doing
business yet 27th in terms of social mobility suggests that that economic
opportunity is very real, while other measures hold the country back.
How about getting to work to run that business or make that
money – and hopefully have some fun too!Americans love to drive.As such,
the price of gas is a big deal.Below is
what people pay in different countries for gas.The world average is $3.80 and the US comes in at $2.15 per gallon while
in France they pay $5.94 and in Hong Kong they pay $8.49!
But it’s not just gas, but there’s buying a car and
maintaining it.Below is a table that
shows the percentage of annual salary it would take to buy a family car and
operate it for one year.These costs
include not only the car and its gas, but insurance and maintenance as well.
And where might an American drive?How about home!Below is a table showing the size of homes
for various countries around the world.The only nation where homes are bigger on average than in the United
States is Australia, but that should be expected as apparently all Australians
keep pet crocodiles!
It’s not just the freedom to drive around that American’s
like.For a nation that was founded on
the pursuit of freedom, freedom of all sorts is still important.Below are two tables, one measuring Economic
Freedom and the other Personal Freedom.
The freedoms in the following two tables in this analysis encompass
a variety of measures including these: Rule of Law / Security and Safety /
Movement / Religion / Association, Assembly, and Civil Society / Expression and
Information / Identity and Relationships / Size of Government / Legal System
and Property Rights.The numbers below
are the top nations of the total pool of 162 nations measured.
And of course the number one freedom someone can have is the
freedom of speech. Without the freedom to say what’s on your mind without fear
of retribution from the government is the strongest tool available for keeping
a government honest.Below is a table
demonstrating something that anyone paying attention this summer would
recognize, Americans have a level of free speech unfettered by government
authorities that is unprecedented in the world.
Another part of freedom is access to information, which is
increasingly delivered via the Internet.Below is a table that looks at the percent of the population with
Internet access for 214 countries.
While the United States may lag far behind on academic
success in primary education, our university system is the best in the world by
far.Below are the 15 best universities
in the world and the only two on the list that are not from the United States
are Oxford and Cambridge in the UK.
Then there is charity.The United States spends more money on charity than any other nation by
far.That is a function of both the
largest GDP as well as the percentage of giving.That is reflected in the table on the left
below.The table on the right measures a
more holistic giving approach that combines donations, volunteering and helping
strangers.Here the United States sits
at number two.
But it’s not just charity that demonstrates America’s
willingness to help, it’s the total social welfare spending.For whatever one’s views on such endeavors,
the United States is behind only France in social welfare spending.This measure includes things such as public
and private social expenditure, the effect of direct taxes (income tax and
social security contributions), indirect taxation of consumption on cash
benefits, as well as tax breaks for social purposes.
We are slight slackers however when it comes to spending on
video games.Americans come in number 3
behind Japan and South Korea on this important measure.
There is one last measure that must be looked at.That is Defense.The United States spends more on defense than
the next 10 countries combined.For some
that might sound problematic, but the reality is that American spending on
defense has allowed the world, particularly Europe to thrive.The second table below shows defense spending
as a percent of GDP.One of the reasons
that European nations are able to generate such extensive welfare spending programs
is that they have kept their defense spending low for decades while the United
States defense expenditures brought about the longest period of overall peace
in Europe in history.That spending may
not show up in happiness measures or salary measures, but it most certainly
shows up in the fact that both Europe and the United States remain bastions of
freedom, democracy and peace, and the carnage of a world war is a distant
memory we read about rather than something we all experienced firsthand. The
first table shows absolute defense spending and the second shows spending as a percentage
of GDP.
At the end of the day, this is piece is a chronicle of the
reality of America. America is indeed imperfect, no doubt for every table here
someone can find their own tables that paint a far darker picture using their
own sources.America does have
inequality, dysfunctional education and healthcare systems and too much
government regulation, but at the same time, Americans have done more with what
they have than any nation on earth.America offers economic opportunities on a wider scale (both geographic
and occupational) than any nation on earth. From Florida to New York to
California to Wyoming the opportunities are simply staggering from doctor to
scientist to graphic designer to business consultant to startup founder to
mechanic to plumber to Instagram model…
What many of the protesters don’t care about is the fact
that the United States Constitution guarantees Americans freedoms that people
in most of the world can only dream of and to the degree that others share some
of them, those freedoms are often at the mercy of political majorities.That includes minority opinions because
things that the majority agree with don’t generally need protection.
At the same time, the United States regularly receives more
immigrants from more places than any nation on earth and gives them opportunities
and freedoms most would or could not dream of at home.And it integrates immigrants at a pace that
no nation has in history.
While there are racial tensions in the United States as
there have been since its founding, in the last half century the country has
made extraordinary leaps which can be seen in both culture and economics, the
former can be seen on televisions, on sports shows and regularly on the radio
while the latter is demonstrated by the fact that 8% of American millionaires
are black, 8% are Asian and 7% are Hispanic.I’ve not found a source thus far, but one can imagine that those numbers
were far smaller during the 1950’s and 1960’s. But I can say that the story the Democrats and the media try and foist on us that America is indeed a bastion of racism is fiction. (https://imperfectamerica.blogspot.com/2020/06/data-shows-driving-while-black-meme-is.html)
For those who want to tear apart American culture because it’s
not what they like, denigrate American values because we’ve not achieved them
on their timetable, want to overthrow America’s capitalist system because they’d
prefer the “equality” promised by socialism or Communism, I’d ask, what place
in the world today, or in world history has a nation done a better job than
America of giving opportunity to its citizens, generating prosperity for its
citizens, protecting its citizens’ freedoms and at the same time helping drive
prosperity and peace around the world?If such a nation exists perhaps I’d certainly be interested in reading
about it.
Tomorrow there are two choices on the ballot.One candidate, a very flawed but passionate man,
understands that the United States is the greatest nation to ever grace the
face of this earth and sees his role as protecting that legacy and rolling back
government intervention to allow Americans of all stripes to address the
country’s shortcomings and achieve even greater success in the future.
The other also an imperfect man, but he sees the United
States as a highly flawed nation, he sees Americans of various identities as
victims and the Constitution as a roadblock to change rather than a guarantee of
freedom and a limit on government intervention on behalf of the majority.
If you like what you’ve seen in the streets of America over
the last six months and would like to see more of it, Joe Biden is your man and
the Democrats are your party.If however
you believe like Ronald Reagan that America’s best days are ahead of her and
that freedom and opportunity are the solutions to most of the problems we face,
Donald Trump is your man and the Republicans are your party.
