You may have noticed that the Church of England, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury above, is planning to pay a large reparations payout for its supposed involvement in the slave trade.
Sebastian Milbank reviewed the C of E report and explained that the links to slavery trade are minor.
The report’s authors have to admit that there was no capital appreciation for Queen Anne’s Bounty over the period that it held these investments. However, the report insists that this income (the dividends from South Sea investments) helped Queen Anne’s Bounty fulfill its purpose of supplementing income from poorer clergy and was likely reinvested, which contributed to Queen Anne’s Bounty’s overall wealth accumulation.
This argument is economically ignorant. If capital doesn’t increase in value, you haven’t profited from its dividends. You have only robbed Peter to pay Paul less. This argument only makes sense if it isn’t about material gain from slavery, but about moral contamination. This explains the sad (and vague) claim: “Many of these individual benefactors were or may have been linked to transatlantic chattel slave trade (for example Edward Colston was a beneficiary) and their benefactions could have been derived from transatlantic slavery profits or the plantation economic.
Three hundred years ago, money was placed on behalf of the Church in a sinful venture, or three hundred years back, wicked men with dirt money donated it to the Church as charitable donations. Today’s modern Anglican clergy and administrators feel sullied. This realization is welcomed by many Anglican clergy and administrators, as it allows them to indulge in a fashionable cause celebre, America’s “racial reckoning” after George Floyd’s death.
The Rev. An Anglican parish priest Daniel French has noted that this will not go down well with the declining number of laity within the church who are seeing their parishes close due to lack of funds. Father French isn’t the only one to notice:
The Revd Marcus Walker and other have already highlighted the cruelty and irresponsibility of spending so much money — money carefully entrusted to the purpose of maintaining Christian worship within this country — when parishes and priests are being closed and Christianity in Britain itself is under threat.
This is all about the Church of England’s progressive leadership trying to virtue-signal its role in the drama of “racial reckoning.” These coddled and posh circles are not fooled.
The progressive city of San Francisco is currently considering a plan that would award $5 million to long-time black residents in reparations. This even though California wasn’t a slave state. This is the hip, progressive thing to do. It will cost $50 billion if only 10,000 San Franciscans apply and qualify for the plan. More:
The applicant must be at least 18 years of age and be able to identify as Black or African American in public documents for at most 10 years. The applicant must also show proof of at least two additional criteria. These include “Born in San Francisco between 1942 and 1996 and has proof that San Francisco has been their home for at least thirteen years” and/or “Personally or the direct descendant from someone who was incarcerated under the failed War on Drugs.”
The city is also required to increase the income of lower-income residents to reflect the Area Median Income (AMI), approximately $97,000 annually, for at least 250 year.
It argues that “Racial inequalities across all metrics have caused a significant gap in racial wealth in the City of San Francisco.” “By increasing income to match AMI, Blacks can afford housing and enjoy a better quality life.
It also aims to create “a comprehensive debt forgiveness programme” that forgives all owed student, housing, credit card, and other debts.
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Well. Three quarters of San Francisco’s population is Asian. One-fifth of San Francisco’s population is Latino. Half of the city’s population had no connection to white supremacy. Do you think these taxpayers will be thrilled about the massive transfer of wealth that has been made to black residents, who are not enslaved and whose claim on the fortune may lie in the fact their grandparent or parent were once imprisoned for drug charges?
Last year, the city spent $14 billion on its entire budget. Imagine that. San Francisco cannot address its horrendous homeless problem, spiraling crime problem or debilitating affordability crisis. It is currently considering the plan, and the head of the city’s governing board says he hopes it passes.
Wow! Progressives are trying to purchase indulgences for their ancestral sins. It’s not easy convincing Asians and Latinos, to say nothing about poor and working-class whites, that they must pay more taxes and/or accept worse city services in order to fund progressive virtue.
