It is increasingly being suggested that US taxpayers should pay “reparations” to dark-skinned citizens as “compensation” for enslavement of their ancestors.
However, popular TV personality Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, dismisses the idea and estimates that it would result in a “disaster for the country”.
– You give any group of people that much money and say, ”there you go, best of luck,” you come back in six months, they’re going to be broke, McGraw says.
In a discussion on the Dr. Phil show, African-American economist and activist William Darity argued that 40 million black descendants of slaves in the United States should receive about $350,000 each in “compensation” for the historical treatment of their ancestors. He estimates the bill for this would be around 14 trillion dollars – more than half of the US GDP.
Dr. Phil was not impressed, however, pointing out that it is unlikely that a specific group can handle a newfound wealth without quickly going back to square one.
– I can tell you from a psychological perspective that if you take $350,000 or $840,000, and you write a check to any group of people – black, white, poor, homeless, whatever – you give any group of people that much money and say, ”there you go, best of luck,” you come back in six months, they’re going to be broke.
– Whatever reparations are done, that would be an absolute disaster, as opposed to guidance and help in creating generational wealth, as opposed to income, he said.
Darity then argued that “no one” is talking about financial mismanagement when talking about other groups receiving damages and accused Dr. Phil of “unfairly” trying to prevent blacks from accessing what they are entitled to.
– I just said, ‘you give that money to anybody, they’re going to mismanage it. They’re going to blow it.” I just talked about this. I just said, ‘If you give this money to anybody, they will mismanage it. They will mess it up. Look at the fraud that just occurred with all of the money that was given in support of Covid, McGraw added.
According to Darity, it is crucial for the government to close the wealth gap between black and white households, which he estimates to be as high as $840 000 per household.
Like Dr. Phil, political commentator Joshua Ferguson was also critical of the idea, stating bluntly that the government has no money – and that it is the taxpayer who pays for such initiatives.
– To say you’re not going to take it from people today, you’re right. You’re going to take it from future generations.
African-American commentator and author Bob Woodson does not believe in this type of reparations either, explaining that he “cannot think of any group of people who have been made wealthy by just transferring money to them”.
There are about 40 million blacks in the US today. Darity erroneously claims that they are all descendants of slaves.
The idea of “compensating” people of color with large sums of money for historical injustices has become increasingly popular in the US. In San Francisco, for example, it has recently been proposed that black citizens be awarded as much as five million dollars each – a sum that some argue, according to the same discourse, is not high enough.
