On Cafe Hayek, Don Boudreaux offers some pointed thoughts regarding a recent communication by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Specifically, Hannah-Jones tweeted an absurd defense of reparations for slavery and subsequent discriminatory policy against black Americans, saying that white Americans should not complain because the money would come from the government.
Professor Boudreaux writes:
From where does Ms. Hannah-Jones suppose the federal government gets whatever money it spends? Does she not realize that every cent comes from flesh-and-blood people? Likely not. As Phil Magness suggests on his Facebook page, Ms. Hannah-Jones seems to embrace the lunacy of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – that is, the ‘theory’ that economic reality is drowning in unused resources that are costlessly coaxed into use whenever central banks conjure into existence new money.
Furthermore, the cost of reparations would fall on people who had nothing to do with slavery and Jim Crow.There is nothing just in forcibly extracting wealth from innocent people to enrich others. That’s Boudreaux’s position, anyway. How would Hannah-Jones respond? I’m sure we will never find out. She doesn’t argue with critics, but either demonizes or ignores them.
Read the whole thing.