Great essay. I think the other missing piece in the reparations "equation" ( in addition to the disparity in wealth between the Caribbean and West Africa) is that the slaves did not exactly work for "free". Most plantation owners needed to maximise the working life of their slaves (as they had paid for it up front), which means they were fed, clothed and sheltered and most large plantations had a slave hospital with doctors in attendance. None of this was free and farm workers in most parts of the world at them time would have had a hand to mouth existence with no disposable income (certainly none for medical care ) . So at best the net cost of the "free" labour would have been marginal.
What to do when inconvenient facts disfavour ideology? For some, it's close your eyes, cover your ears, and open your mouth to out shout the opposition as you march headlong on to utopia...
The ignorance of history by these activists is astounding. I keep wondering why we are responsible for the sins of the past. I personally have never kept slaves unless you count expecting my children when they lived at home to do their fair share of household chores. So I keep wondering why our Australian government apologised for the "stolen" generation of Aborigines which it turns out were not actually stolen but mostly rescued. It was a meaningless piece of virtue signalling as this.
Great essay. I think the other missing piece in the reparations "equation" ( in addition to the disparity in wealth between the Caribbean and West Africa) is that the slaves did not exactly work for "free". Most plantation owners needed to maximise the working life of their slaves (as they had paid for it up front), which means they were fed, clothed and sheltered and most large plantations had a slave hospital with doctors in attendance. None of this was free and farm workers in most parts of the world at them time would have had a hand to mouth existence with no disposable income (certainly none for medical care ) . So at best the net cost of the "free" labour would have been marginal.
What to do when inconvenient facts disfavour ideology? For some, it's close your eyes, cover your ears, and open your mouth to out shout the opposition as you march headlong on to utopia...
Do hope there is no cliff in the way.
Another great piece of analysis. Thank you Nigel!
The ignorance of history by these activists is astounding. I keep wondering why we are responsible for the sins of the past. I personally have never kept slaves unless you count expecting my children when they lived at home to do their fair share of household chores. So I keep wondering why our Australian government apologised for the "stolen" generation of Aborigines which it turns out were not actually stolen but mostly rescued. It was a meaningless piece of virtue signalling as this.