Dave LaCourse wrote

JR opines:

I personally believe some surcharge, say 0.01% (only a dime per
$1,000), should be added to all real estate transactions for,
say, the next two hundred years or so--paid *directly* to the
nearest federally recognized American Indian
nation/tribe/reservation.....

....alternatively, one mil from all property taxes paid in the
country....

Ridiculous! The native Americans have more than made up for it *in some
places* with their gambling casinos.

Think a moment about the *actual* value of the land of the U.S. The tens
or even hundreds of millions of dollars from Indian casinos are the
smallest drop in the ocean by comparison. Tens of billions wouldn't
be a big drop.

You and I owe them nothing.

They are "owed" their stolen land. But since "we" stole it fair and
square and all, the most they have a prayer of ever getting--even in a
future, better America--is an honest, universal recognition by Americans
that the land is in fact stolen. The modest proposal above would not
represent a just economic retribution, a "making up for it", but simply a
small, continual reminder that the real wealth is there, that it is
growing, that receivers of stolen property are making fortune after
fortune from it. The tiniest of tiny cuts kicked back to the real owners
doesn't seem unreasonable....

How far back
should we go in history to remove the "stain?"

Well, the Irish monks and Vikings are not still in possession of much
stolen land, so that narrows a bit any search for the beginning of
the relevant wars of aggression, conquest and occupation.

Should we pay all the survivors
or their ancestors that lost everything in Tokyo, Yokohama Nakasaki,
Hiroshima, Cologne, Hamburg.

Apples and oranges. It that war we were not the aggressors, and in
any event, we are no longer occupying Japan or Germany. Maybe we
could just give them commissary and PX privileges...

Should we pay compensation for every Black man/woman because
their ancestors were once slaves?

Oranges and apples. I spent a decade and a half in Africa, and saw
little sign of U.S. occupation. I see no particular reason, however,
to exempt black Americans from the Occupied Land Tax.

JR