Reparations? 1

Here is a debate held in the United Kingdom on whether reparations should be paid. A professor of black studies (and descendant of slaves) explains why he thinks that the governments of the West should pay money to today's descendants of slaves. Today we're looking at his arguments; tomorrow we'll look at his opponent's arguments.

Back in the 1830's when the slave trade was abolished in the UK, he says, the government gave a large sum to slave owners to compensate them for the price they had paid for those slaves. He thinks that this justifies the whole idea of paying reparations, and it's his main argument.

He also claims that Western countries are wealthy today because of that payment to slave owners and because of the wealth those slaves helped create. Clearly his Marxist opinion is questionable as it ignores 190 years of monumental economic history since then, and I don't share it.

(cont'd tomorrow)