Reply #140: Start out in the present and work back

[eridani]

Two recent situations that require reparations of some sort are compensations paid to the POWs of the War on Some Drugs, and compensation for screwing black people out of the New Deal benefits that everyone else got.

White people have gotten a huge leg up from Social Security helping to support their parents, unemployment compensation, and large government investments promoting home ownership. The former two used to exclude household and farm help, precisely because of the color of most of the people doing those things in southern states. The last benefit they have been redlined out of.

Reparations for these things have two advantages. One, you can more easily get the information needed to pay the benefits fairly. Two, the application can be completely color-blind, though minorities will benefit disproportionally as intended. White POWs of the Drug War and those whose parents didn't get Social Security or unemployment benefits due to the kind of work they did would also be eligible.