California’s reparations scheme is bad policy and worse politics

Since at least 1865, when Congress voted to set up the Freedmen’s Bureau, Americans have debated how and whether to compensate former slaves. In 2020, when Donald Trump had reawoken the left and George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, was murdered by a policeman, the idea of reparations—paying money to the descendants of slaves—became almost mainstream. Some Democratic politicians, under pressure from activists and eager to be on the right side of history, agreed to set up commissions to study the idea. A few years later, those commissions are coming back with recommendations.