Resolved: The United States Federal Government ought to pay reparations to African Americans.

I hope we have a great experince =) In this round, I will be presenting my arguments. ==========================================================================Definitions:Ought - Used to indicate a desirable or expected state [Oxford Dictionary] Reparations - The making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged [Oxford Dictionary]=========================================================================There are two observations that I want to present from this resolution. Observation 1: Solutions cannot be desirable unless they are also feasible [1] Francesca Pasquali is a professor of philosophy, and she states, "Political philosophy is required to develop solutions that are at once desirable and feasible; it must advance proposals that are creditable under both respects. This explains why, according to Rawls, political philosophy must defend a reasonable faith in the possibility that the social world makes it feasible to enact desirable solutions. " Observation 2: Moral outrage offers an insufficient reason for adopting infeasible solutions [2] Ryan Fortson, who has a PHD in political science form Standford law school writes,"Discussions of feasibility carry the unfortunate and displeasing aftertaste of ignoring moral arguments. However, assessing feasibility is a necessary task within the realm of politics, where limited resources and conflicting desires mean that not all claims for justice can be vindicated. " These Observations show us key aspects about this resolution and the burden of proof I have (as con) to win the debate. The main point behind these two observations is to show that the United States Federal Government cannot be held responsible for Contention 1: Economic Infeasibility Reparations would cost the government trillions of dollars and are not economically feasibleJack White calculated that descendants of slaves are owed twenty-four trillion dollars "based on unpaid wages denied ten million slaves, doubled for pain and suffering with interest added. [3] Reparations are infeasible in nature and would be destructive to the economy. If reparations could bankrupt the government or set back the economy, then we should not use them. Furthermore, it is taxpayers that are funding this money - which brings me to contention 2… Contention 2: Reparations would be unfair to Payers Those would pay now are not responsible and haven’t benefitted from slavery Alfred L. Grophy writes, "Moreover,the primary beneficiaries of those systems [slavery and segregation] are now gone. Payments will have to come from taxpayers, who have no culpability for those past crimes and little, if any, of the benefit. "The burden of the money required would be put on taxpayers for something that they were never responsible for. The government cannot require taxpayers to pay such a large sum of money for something they are not responsible for. Contention 3: Recipients of Reparations are UnclearIt is impossible to determine who deserves reparations. There are currently no slaves in the United States and only the decendants of slaves are alive today. It is not possible to trace all of the descendants and pay them. Allen C. Guelzo, Professor of the Civil war Era writes, "Who should be paid? At first glance, the answer seems obvious: the slaves. But the victims of slavery are now long dead; it is the heirs of those victims who stand next in line for compensation. Still, the line is a shaky and complicated one, with the chief complication lurking in the genes of African-Americans themselves. Slavery was a system of bondage; it was also a system of forced rape and violent sexual exploitation across the old slave South. The mixed-race offspring of slavery were plain to see on every plantation. And the long-term result is that the average African-American today has been estimated, in genetic terms, to be approximately 20 percent white – and much of that 20 percent includes the genes of the white slaveholders who originally owned his great-grandparents. By what logic do we pay reparations for slavery to those who, in all too many cases, are literally descendents of the actual slaveholders? And should reparations for slavery include the descendents of those blacks who – like President Obama – did not arrive in the US until after slavery was ended? Due to the mixing of different races during the time of slavery, and other eras, it is unclear as to who we would be paying reparations to. Many people with even a slight descent of being African American would jump at the opportunity to receive reparations. And since many African Americans today came after times of slavery and segregation, does that mean they get reparations too? It is not feasible for the U. S. Government to find out weather every single person that applies for reparations truly has a descent from slavery; in fact, it’s downright impossible. For these reasons, I urge that you vote Con in today’s round. ============================================================================= Sources:[1] Francesca Pasquali, (Prof. , Philosophy, U. of Bergamo, Italy), VIRTUOUS IMBALANCE: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY BETWEEN DESIRABILITY AND FEASIBILITY, 2012, 6.3 [2] and [3] Ryan Fortson, (JD, Stanford Law School & Ph. D. , Political Science, U. Minnesota), AFRICAN AMERICAN LAW & POLICY REPORT, 2004, 73. [4] . http://www.nytimes.com...- americans/who-would-pay-for-reparations-and-why DOA: 6-26-15] [5] . http://www.csmonitor.com...;