Support for a program to pay reparations to descendants of slaves is gaining momentum, but

quote:

---

Reparations for slavery has been fiercely discussed in the United States since Union Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman promised 40 acres and a mule to 4 million freed slaves in 1865. While Americans don't generally support a reparations program paid by taxpayers, this summer's events have shifted the once overlooked topic into the national debate.

One hundred and forty-two members of Congress have co-sponsored H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, compared with only two in 2014. Even Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, has said he supports the study, representing a change on the issue. 

---

quote:

---

This spring, Darity and his wife, Kirsten Mullen, made the most comprehensive case for a reparations program in their latest book "From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century." They argue a meaningful program to eliminate the existing Black-White wealth gap requires an allocation of between $10 trillion and $12 trillion, or about $800,000 to each eligible Black household. But not everyone agrees that now is the time to pay reparations. 

"Our national debt is already now up to around $26-27 trillion given the money we're spending on Covid," says Michael Tanner, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "And we're losing more money because we're not picking up the revenue because economic growth is so slow right now. This hardly seems the time to burden the economy with more debt, more taxes. Essentially what you want to do is stimulate economic growth for all our benefits.

---

quote:

---

Glenn Loury, professor of economics at Brown University, is an outspoken opponent of reparations for Black Americans. He says that "the real issue here are differences between the populations in the capacity to generate wealth. If you redistribute, you may have a short term impact, but in the long run, unless the differences in these populations, in their capacity to generate wealth, to start a business, to effectively take risks, to save and accumulate within their families, the underlying structure will push you back into a situation of inequality again."

---