Reparations won’t work. Money doesn’t solve social problems like this. In a native community not so far from me, each resident member of the band received $50,000 when they turned 18. The community was dirt poor, with high rates of substance abuse and illiteracy, but it sat in top of vast oil and natural gas reserves.
Reparations won’t work. Money doesn’t solve social problems like this. In a native community not so far from me, each resident member of the band received $50,000 when they turned 18. The community was dirt poor, with high rates of substance abuse and illiteracy, but it sat in top of vast oil and natural gas reserves.
The program was a tragic comedy. Kids would blow through the $50,000 in a matter of months. They bought brand new trucks and other trinkets and trashed them soon enough. Even worse, the financial leeches moved in and would pay families 50 cents on the dollar to access the funds years before the kids turned 18. Car dealers really benefited from the program as well.
The disbursements were finally dropped by the native band because it was a colossal waste of money and caused more problems than it solved. Twenty years later nothing has changed in the community. The band itself is wealthy beyond belief, but most the residents are still poor, still products of inter-generational poverty and substance abuse.
Reparations won’t work. Money doesn’t solve social problems like this. In a native community not so far from me, each resident member of the band received $50,000 when they turned 18. The community was dirt poor, with high rates of substance abuse and illiteracy, but it sat in top of vast oil and natural gas reserves.
The program was a tragic comedy. Kids would blow through the $50,000 in a matter of months. They bought brand new trucks and other trinkets and trashed them soon enough. Even worse, the financial leeches moved in and would pay families 50 cents on the dollar to access the funds years before the kids turned 18. Car dealers really benefited from the program as well.
The disbursements were finally dropped by the native band because it was a colossal waste of money and caused more problems than it solved. Twenty years later nothing has changed in the community. The band itself is wealthy beyond belief, but most the residents are still poor, still products of inter-generational poverty and substance abuse.