Reparations
Simon Caney's arguments in "Environmental Degradation, Reparations, and the Moral Significance of History" are based on environmental climate change and if reparations to "injured" parties should be made. This is closely related to the issue regarding reparations for slavery. Who should be responsible for paying these reparations? Caney talked about the reparations for climate change and focused on a few different parties. The Casual party is made up of the people that literally caused the damage. In regards to climate change the people who caused it could be corporations, governments, or even individuals over one hundred years ago. This relates to slavery because the people that caused slavery were all slave owners and slave traders. The biggest problem with this is that these corporations are no longer around, the governments might not be in power anymore, and these individuals have all passed. Caney also talked about the beneficiary party paying for the reparations. This party is made up of the people who benefited from the damage caused. The problem with this is you cannot make people pay for others wrong doings that they accidentally benefited from. The third problem, the biggest problem in my opinion, is who are you going to pay the reparations to? In the climate change case do you pay the government so they can try to fix the problem? Well, our taxes already pay the government and what if the problem was created by the government? Are they going to pay random people that they think were put at a disadvantage from problems caused years ago? The answer is most likely always going to be no. Who are you going to pay the slave reparations to? There are currently no living slaves, probably no children of slaves alive either. Would these reparations go to great great grandchildren of the slaves? If so, how? Do you try to trace every single family tree of every single person that claims one of their elders was a slave? To me, this is impossible and Caney's arguments support that. We can acknowledge the hardships that people went through over a century ago and the people that might be impacted now in some way shape or form but it is not possible to give reparations for these problems.
Hi Gavin, I totally agree with what you have to say. We do not really know who should be responsible for these issues. Evethouhgh they might seem different they are definitly related in a way. How do you think these issues can be solved?
ReplyDeleteHey Gavin! I agree with how impossibly of a decision it would be to choose who reparations are payed to, but I think it is a decision that needs to be made as quickly as it can. Climate change is an issue that is going to affect us in our lifetime and our children and children's children, and I don't think people should point fingers anymore or justify their actions by saying, "But look at what this big business did". By not doing something about climate change now, it is soon going to be way too late.
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ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that there are no more slaves around so the government obviously cannot pay them. On the other hand though it would be absolutely foolish for the government to deny the fact there are families of slaves who were put at a disadvantage. It goes way past slavery; we must ask our selves: for how many generations were African Americans put at a disadvantage when it comes to housing, education, healthcare. That is where we should-be compensating people.
Hi Gavin! I agree that the decision of deciding what would be fair for a reparation. Climate change and slavery are two major events that impacted the many, many lives. How can you truly put a value on a life or the environment? I do think that in some ways there is more that the government or others can do to help make it right.
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