Duke University professor of economics William Darity wants $14 trillion in reparations to be paid to African Americans. That would roughly break down to $350,000 per recipient. True, he was blathering on the “Dr. Phil” show, and perhaps thought nobody with more than a GED would be watching. Nonetheless he said, for public consumption, that trillions in financial reparations should be handed out to “reduce the wealth gap” between white and black Americans. Where will all that money come from, the phony TV doctor asked? Oh, from the Federal government, which will apparently make it magically appear, replied the evidently phony economist. Will a $350,000 windfall be enough to do any lasting good for the vast majority of blacks who would receive it? Oh, probably not, but it will feel good.
Or something. California’s task force on imaginary reparations things they should be at least $5 million per eligible resident. Sure, why not? Why not $10 million?
In the past, the professor has estimated that reparations would cost between $10 and $12 trillion. Of course, those figures are also impossible and ridiculous, so we need not make too big a thing out of his latest demand.
The National Debt, even the most woke and irresponsible economists will admit if you back them against a wall, is getting, indeed is, dangerously large already at about $32 trillion. Increasing it by 40% in a short period of time is a recipe for economic disaster that would adversely affect all races and creeds.
One doesn’t even need to get into the absurd practical, social, political and legal impediments to such a mass transfer of wealth, which would be enough to make such Darity’s reparations plan madness even if it were affordable, which it is not now and never will be. The ethics question is: How can Duke responsibly employ a professor who advocates such reckless economic policy? What can students learn from this man, who places his race and political biases ahead of his scholarship?
Darity is a race activist masquerading as an economist. The professor was the founding director of Duke’s Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality, and his most recent book,“From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century,” lobbies for what he has to know is irresponsible, divisive, and ultimately futile public policy. I note that he’s also a professor of public policy and African/African American Studies. Duke should call him a professor of Racial Grievances and Unethical Solutions as a matter of transparency.
Pressed on the illogical nature of his crusade by Dr. Phil, who at least has the IQ level necessary to com in out of the rain, the best that this professor of economics from one of the most prestigious colleges in the nation could counter with was the “40 acres and a mule” promise, which was never U.S. government policy, and the Homestead Act of 1860, which didn’t cost the Treasury anything and was designed to settle the West. And, of course, it involved taking the land involved from Native American Tribes.
An ideologue and race-hustler like Darity can’t be trusted to educate students about economic theory, as he is prepared to discard sound economics whenever passions beckon. Having him as a professor should be considered a black mark for any graduating Duke economics major.
Let’s hope it will be.
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Source: College Fix.
Ethics Alarms 
It is a Black mark. Don’t you remember the rules? Black marks are good and white marks are bad. Anything white is bad and anything Black is good. Just like the professor’s economics opinion…
did spellcheck help you capitalize black? Or did I miss a sarcasm emoji???
I don’t know where to find a sarcasm emoji. Sorry, I thought my sarcasm was clear. I will attempt to improve that next time.
Sarcasm was duly noted. The double sarcasm, or sarcasm within sarcasm, though, may not have hit the mark.
jvb
I don’t know what he’s thinking. Anyone who’s really woke knows that the only fair amount for reparations is infinity plus one dollars.
Man. Why did I ever work? Why didn’t I just go on the dole?
“What can students learn from this man, who places his race and political biases ahead of his scholarship?”
That can learn that their tuition dollars already contribute toward reparations by paying for him to teach them about the economics of reparations.
The question is, would white African Americans, like Elon Musk, also get reparations? What about Jamaican blacks, like Kamala Harris’s family?
The inimitable Larry Elder correctly asks if Kamala Harris or Barack Obama (who both descend from slave-owners) should Pay A Check Or Receive A Check.
It might be useful to examine the standard of living of most whites and blacks in post-civil war America specifically in the agricultural industry. Not every farm in the south was a plantation nor did every farmer own slaves. Slaves costing $500 in 1861 would cost in today’s dollars over $17,000. On top of that the owner had to pay for food, shelter and medical care. The average white farmer was earning subsistence wages or only slightly better for his own family and hardly in a position to own slaves.
After the civil war freed blacks were basically left without resources and many stayed with their former masters. Most however began moving north toward the cities of St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit which were fast becoming hubs of industrial activity. Yes, segregation did exist even in those areas, but Black culture began to thrive, and the economic condition of Blacks rose until the late sixties. High school and home ownership rates were at all-time highs (higher than today) despite what we hear about red-lining and other Jim Crowe era laws.
The question remains before we start talking about reparations is what was the proximate cause of today’s high poverty rates among inner city Blacks? To what degree did they contribute to their own lack of success? And if government programs of the sixties became the equivalent of an opiate that allowed so many to excuse their own lack of industry and ambition.
As I’ve said many times, the continued failure to thrive of the black underclass since the 1960s has driving all sorts of policy makers, academics and politicians absolutely mad. There’s one theory that desegregation destroyed the parallel black economy that had grown up in the north. It sure killed the Negro leagues, which were a thriving black business.
Again, Chris, excellent observations.
The Bide Administration, through HUD, changed mortgage lending and origination rules which go into effect on May 1, 2023. One of the rules requires higher credit score borrowers to pay more closing and administrative costs, which will be transferred to lower credit score borrowers to offset their closing costs and qualification requirements. Here is a Fox New article about it:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/real-estate/real-estate-expert-shreds-biden-rule-punishing-homebuyers-good-credit-madness
From the article: “Experts believe that borrowers with a credit score of about 680 would pay around $40 more per month on a $400,000 mortgage under rules from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that go into effect May 1 — costs that will help subsidize people with lower credit ratings also looking for a mortgage, according to a Washington Times report Tuesday.”
Reparations? Methinks so.
jvb
680 is not a great score. What led to the housing bubble in 2005 were sub prime mortgages. We had to bail out Fannie and Freddie and numerous lawsuits against lenders for “predatory lending practices occurred. I would argue that the rules changes that Bush 2 proposed but Barney Frank scuttled would have prevented the crisis then. Do we not learn that when the government relaxes regulations, and the private sector uses the new rules and chaos results – at minimal cost to them- the government will step in and blame the financial services industry for creating the chaos?
Increasing the premiums on Federal mortgage insurance for some will not change the fact that people with low credit scores have low credit scores for a reason. They have difficulty paying back what they owe either because of learned behavior that paying your debts is not important or the inability to have sufficient income for the things they want to have.
I attended Duke post-grad, and faculty like this is why I no longer contribute to the school. If only the president were willing to impose the rigor of the basketball program on the faculty.