Coercive Accumulation/Redistribution

[leftcider]

I hear this argument often:

Fortunes have been generated in the past through coercive measures, such as slavery, fraud, working with the Nazis etc. Thus, their wealth is "illegitimate" and should be redistributed.

I think there is some moral underpinning to this line of thinking, but that having the government confiscate and redistrubite property based on past wrongs is a recipe for rife abuses of power.

What do members of this forum feel about this?

[Morgan_Freeman]

Quote by: leftcider Fortunes have been generated in the past through coercive measures, such as slavery, fraud, working with the Nazis etc. Thus, their wealth is "illegitimate" and should be redistributed. I think there is some moral underpinning to this line of thinking, but that having the government confiscate and redistrubite property based on past wrongs is a recipe for rife abuses of power.

Yeah, that's a tricky issue. A good example is the forty million dollars that Hitler owes my girlfriend's family for services rendered during WW2. The government of Germany decided to "redistribute" it.

My basic position is that, in any case where the victims and/or transgressors are still alive, the government should step in. If they're dead, there's not much you can do except punish/reward people's descendants, who had nothing to do with it anyway.

I don't see why restitutions should be ripe for abuse, as long as they are done in a very conscientous way.

[PatrickHenry]

How about returning sovereignty to occupied nations?

[Morgan_Freeman]

I just realized why you mentioned slavery. I've heard people say the same thing -- that affirmative action and similar policies are restitution for slavery.

This is a totally invalid argument, because there is no one alive today who engaged in slavery. Even granting, for the sake of argument, that there are people alive today who benefitted from slavery, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to translate this into any kind of just redistribution.

[Morgan_Freeman]

Quote by: PatrickHenry How about returning sovereignty to occupied nations?

How about it? As far as I'm concerned, individual sovereignty is a basic human right.

[Osborn F Enready]

Morgan, I essentially agree for example, that ENRON's wealth generated, should be redistributed to the people they STOLE the money from.

However, when you start applying this argument to things from well in the past, the whole case becomes questionable. What documents, testimonies or "depictions" will be credited as being "true"?

Enron was recent, and the lines of corruption were fairly easy to uncover due to the length of time that has passed SINCE the WRONGS happened.

I feel it is an essential point to address.

I personally know 5 people who have been absolutely WRONGED by the justice system, as I have many times in the past.(all minor offenses, but never the less, showing a sign of "tendency" with personal experience)

I no longer have faith in our system of justice, based on constitutional misinterpretations, bad precedents, and the growing tendency of both major parties to embrace unitary executive powers.

Until our constitution is re-implemented, people like me just won't budge.

[leftcider]

Quote by: Morgan_Freeman individual sovereignty is a basic human right.

Excellent quote.