Thank you Rivendell. No this isn't perfect and isn't going to make much of a difference. But it is a very small start. I long for a country where we can discuss all of our past and all the repercussions that have come from it that make our written Declaration of Independence such a hollow document. "All men are created equal ..." (Some more so than others.)

I hope to see a day when what Rivendell is doing is done by many firms; that bright minds figure out how to do it better with more effect. (I wouldn't put Grant Peterson as head of that committee in my firm.) And yes, if we really did have meaningful reparations, all of us whites would come down a real notch on the wealth ladder. But we live in a country built on black labor. (A real part of old Boston's wealth came from the Lowell cotton mills. Those mills were the start of our industrial age. Cotton from the slave plantations. New England's seaports - ships to haul slaves, sugar and rum - all very closely intertwined. Cod, cheap nourishment for Caribbean slaves.)

The imbalances go on to this day. Education, decent housing, health care - all far more available to whites than blacks. Any system of growth that is based on equal anything simple keeps the imbalance in place. (Imagine two piles of money, $1,000 and $2,000.. Any money over $1,200 can be invested at twice inflation. Under $1,000 - none can be invested, $1,000 to $1,200 can be invested at around the inflation level. it is quite obvious that those possessing the smaller pile aren't getting anywhere but the those with the bigger pile in future decades get progressively more simply because they started with more. Their kids start with bigger piles.

Again, thank you Grant Peterson and Rivendell.

Ben