For a long time, the idea of reparations (monetary compensation to the descendants of slaves) struck me as just another special interest group looking for handouts from Uncle Sam. But lately, I have begun to see the logic and moral foundation for reparations.
Not for descendants of African slaves, of course. There are no living slaves or even living children of slaves anymore. If anyone deserved reparations for slavery, he or she is long gone. Descendants of slaves inherited greater freedom, opportunity and blessings than their forebears ever dreamed of, so there is no legitimate claim for them.
However, there are others who deserve reparations, or at least others who soon will.
One group of people who work to support a group of people who don’t is slavery
When the government decides how much you can benefit from your labors, as they do with progressive taxation, then you are not free to strive and prosper. When the government decides how much profit is too much, as they do when they bring charges against successful companies, then the owners, stockholders and investors in those companies are not free to enjoy the benefits of their investments. When the government takes a percentage of one’s profits from the sale of one’s home, the sale of one’s stock investments, the sale of one’s business, then those people are not free to enjoy the benefits of their life’s work. When one is not free, one is by definition either a captive or a slave.
When the government redistributes wealth by taxing those who work and subsidizing those who do not, that is more than confiscation. That creates a class of people who benefit from the toil of others. One group of people who work to support a group of people who don’t is slavery.
When one is forced to buy a certain type of health insurance, one is not free to choose how to spend his money or how to provide for his own well being. When the government decides what kind of light bulbs one can buy, what size toilet tank one can install, or how much salt can be added to one’s food, then there is no limit to the depth and detail of government intrusion into one’s life. When every aspect of existence is decided or dictated by another, that is not freedom. That is slavery.
Lest you think that only the half of Americans who actually pay taxes are slaves, let me hasten to address the rest. Those who exist on the public dole, on welfare and subsidies and federal aid, are also slaves. They are kept healthy, kept solvent, and just plain kept because they are vital to the whole system of slavery. Every couple of years, this growing group of dependents is harvested for their votes. They are slaves to government largesse, having lost the ability and the incentive to work and achieve and provide for themselves. They too, are slaves.
As government grows with every multi-thousand page piece of legislation that the current Congress rubber-stamps into law, so does the extent of our slavery deepen. If we remain on this course, at some point in the near future, we shall all be dependent on the government for our existence. We will all be slaves, and we will all deserve reparations from the government that enslaves us.
But by then, whom will we tax to pay for those reparations?
