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> The Germans committed atrocities against the Jews less than 100 years ago, but nobody is demanding reparations there? As it seems, reparations were demanded

by Mlller 4y ago

> The Germans committed atrocities against the Jews less than 100 years ago, but nobody is demanding reparations there? As it seems, reparations were demanded (and payed) sometimes, cp. e.g. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/german-holocaust-reparations https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/german-holocaust-repara...

_gabe_ 4y ago
> The German government and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany announced an increase in funding for social welfare services for Holocaust survivors by $88 million on July 10, 2018. This funding increase will allow survivors to receive more frequent and better quality home care, food support, transportation and medical services. This allocation makes Germany’s 2019 total pledge to the Claims Conference $564 million. (Emphasis mine) I think this final paragraph in that article says it all. Who are the reparations going to? The Holocaust survivors. I'm not aware of any Haitians that were wronged by France in the 1800s that are still alive today, but if any of them are still alive that makes it much easier to figure out how to pay reparations :) My general point was that it's ridiculous to pay reparations of wrongdoing to people that weren't wronged. And you can go down the whole path of how certain people are born into higher social statuses and whatnot, but that's a different argument and that ultimately boils down to the fact that life isn't fair or equal. There's nothing we can do about that. What we can do is fight the crimes against humanity that are happening right now. We can make life better for the people around us. We can help influence our small circle of impact, and hopefully make the world a better place in the process. Focusing on the evils of our ancestors won't get us anywhere (unless we're studying them to avoid making the same mistakes). But maybe we can fight the crimes that are going on right now so that our posterity won't have the same arguments about how we wronged them by not fighting the injustice that is now.

by Mlller 4y ago

_gabe_ 4y ago

> The German government and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany announced an increase in funding for social welfare services for Holocaust survivors by $88 million on July 10, 2018. This funding increase will allow survivors to receive more frequent and better quality home care, food support, transportation and medical services. This allocation makes Germany’s 2019 total pledge to the Claims Conference $564 million. (Emphasis mine) I think this final paragraph in that article says it all. Who are the reparations going to? The Holocaust survivors. I'm not aware of any Haitians that were wronged by France in the 1800s that are still alive today, but if any of them are still alive that makes it much easier to figure out how to pay reparations :) My general point was that it's ridiculous to pay reparations of wrongdoing to people that weren't wronged. And you can go down the whole path of how certain people are born into higher social statuses and whatnot, but that's a different argument and that ultimately boils down to the fact that life isn't fair or equal. There's nothing we can do about that. What we can do is fight the crimes against humanity that are happening right now. We can make life better for the people around us. We can help influence our small circle of impact, and hopefully make the world a better place in the process. Focusing on the evils of our ancestors won't get us anywhere (unless we're studying them to avoid making the same mistakes). But maybe we can fight the crimes that are going on right now so that our posterity won't have the same arguments about how we wronged them by not fighting the injustice that is now.