Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“As is usual when someone details the vileness of slavery we get the claim that, well, it financed the current richness of the world: ‘That complicity helped shape modern Britain, Lester said. Plantation profits helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, railways, public health, welfare, universities, schools, church building and the public finances.’ Therefore everyone who benefits from the current richness of the world must cough up trillions to compensate. We do not agree with the base claim, obviously. Everywhere had slavery and only the one place had that first Industrial Revolution. It’s therefore not slavery that was the special spark that triggered the IR: QED. But, OK, let us accept the point in order to be able to explore it. Slavery did lead to the richness of the modern world. That means that anyone in this modern world benefitted from slavery.” (09/17/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/a-logical-point-about-the-slavery-reparations-movement