As is usual when someone details the vileness of slavery we get the claim that, well, it financed the current richness of the world:
That complicity helped shape modern Britain, Lester said. Plantation profits helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, railways, public health, welfare, universities, schools, church building and the public finances.
Therefore everyone who benefits from the current richness of the world must cough up trillions to compensate.
We do not agree with the base claim, obviously. Everywhere had slavery and only the one place had that first Industrial Revolution. It’s therefore not slavery that was the special spark that triggered the IR: QED.
But, OK, let us accept the point in order to be able to explore it. Slavery did lead to the richness of the modern world. That means that anyone in this modern world benefitted from slavery That’s the claim being made, isn’t it. Which means that all those descendants of slaves currently shouting for reparations have also been made rich by slavery. Precisely and exactly because the greatest determinant of income and wealth in this modern world is whether you are born into a place which had one of those industrial revolutions or not.
If you’re on minimum wage in the UK today then you’re in the top 10% of all global incomes. You have indeed benefitted.
That is, if slavery made us all rich then, well, slavery made us all rich and who needs to be compensated for that? And if slavery didn’t make us all rich then we cannot be claiming that slavery is the cause of the societal richness that requires compensation.
Logic is fun, isn’t it.
Tim Worstall