Dr. Phil warned Tuesday that the economics professor’s plan for $350,000 in compensation for 40 million descendants of slaves would be an “utter disaster,” noting that giving a lump sum is not the best way to help anyone.
The TV host on Tuesday called on Duke University’s William Darty, who is the co-author of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century.
Darty proposed that the US government issue the money in the same way it sent checks to millions of Americans during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, at a cost of $14 trillion.
Dr. Phil has challenged Darty’s plan, arguing that people will mismanage the money.
I can tell you from a psychological perspective that if you take $350,000 or $840,000, and write a check to any group of people — black, white, poor, homeless, whatever — you give any group of people that much money and say, he said, “Ha You go, “Good luck,” you’ll be back in six months, they’ll fall apart.
“Whatever compensation is made, it will be an absolute disaster, as opposed to directing and helping to create wealth for generations, rather than income.”
Dr. Phil has challenged Professor William Darity’s claims, saying that it is a bad idea to give any group of people a lump sum of cash and expect them to invest and spend it wisely.
Darty accused Dr. Phil of unjustly preventing blacks from accessing what was rightfully theirs.
“Nobody ever said there would be mismanagement of funds when we talk about distributing compensation payments to other communities,” Darty said.
The TV Doctor replied, “I just said it.
I just said, ‘You give that money to anyone, they’re going to mishandle it. They will blow it up. ”
He added, “Look at the scam that just happened with all the money that was given to support COVID.”
Darty suggested that checks, similar to those handed out during the pandemic, could be sent.
It will be paid by the federal government in the same way that the federal government met the expenditures that were paid for the purposes of trying to deal with the Great Recession and also, more recently, with the economic downturn associated with the Great Pandemic.”
Darty said that if the $14 trillion were distributed evenly among the 40 million people whose ancestors were in chattel slavery, it would equal $350,000 per person.
Professor William Darity teaches economics at Duke University. On Tuesday’s session of Dr. Phil’s Show, he argued that the US federal government should spend $14 trillion on a massive compensation program for 40 million black Americans.
The amount, he said, “must be dictated by the wealth disparity between black and white Americans, which currently amounts to over $840,000 per family.”
Darty said the program’s “goal” is to “eliminate the racial wealth gap in the United States.”
The US government currently has more than $31 trillion in debt.
Political writer Joshua Ferguson, who also appeared on Tuesday’s session with Dr Phil, said the country could not afford the huge compensation bill.
“First of all, the American government has no money,” Ferguson said.
All their money comes from taxes. To say that you wouldn’t take it from people today, you’re right. You will take it from the next generations.
Famed author and civil rights activist Bob Woodson also criticized Darty’s plan, saying, “I can’t think of any group of people who got rich just by funneling money to them.”
There are just over 40 million black Americans in the United States, so Darty’s numbers assume that every single one of them is descendants of American slavery.
However, according to Pew Research Center study As of April 2022, only 57 percent of black Americans believe they are descendants of American slavery.
Darty said the program would work similarly to the COVID payments millions of Americans receive. And current and future taxpayers will finally feel the payments
The idea of redeeming black Americans for the sins of the slavery era has been brought up many times over the years.
In January, San Francisco proposed paying each longtime black resident $5 million, causing an uproar.
Cities including Boston, Massachusetts, St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Louis, Missouri, as well as Los Angeles, have created task forces and task forces to develop their own compensation plans.
