I can understand Asylum's hostility to the concept of giving something to someone for an event that happened to another person in another time, but things are not always so simply black and white.
Take Native American tribes, for instance. Most of the tribes in North America suffered greatly during U.S. expansion to the point where some were annihilated. The govt. then placed them into "reservations" where they would be "taken care of", but mostly they were left to their own devices, or worse, swindled by govt. contractors who pawned of rotting meat and disease-riddled blankets on the tribes. Now, you might say that we don't do that today, that the playing field is level, and maybe in some of those places where the tribes were able to start casinos it has become level. However, the reality is that Native Americans living on reservations have to deal with high mortality rates...much of it from suicide. They have fewer opportunities and lack basic educational necessities. Jobs are scarce, and you can see why many tribes lobby the govt. for the rights to build casinos.
If these problems weren't an ongoing concern, of course I'd say the government and the people of the United States don't owe them anything. However, these concerns have been addressed sporadically and without much enthusiasm for almost a century-and-a-half, and continues to plague us as a society. If reparations are used in targeted ways to create educational opportunities and jobs, not just a handout and a goodbye, I think it would be worthwhile to put aside some tax money for those who were wronged and continue to be wronged.
