While I don’t have any particular problem with such an amendment, I don’t think it would solve the problem. You can come up with assumptions within the realm of possibility to make almost any policy proposal work (e.g. implausible but technically possible growth projections for the GOP tax bill). If you try to define a ruler against which to measure, you turn that ruler into a partisan tool, which parties can pack with their lackeys.
How about an amendment that requires a statement of rationale for every law, as well as quantifiable outcomes that we should expect from the law. That way we can at least test laws to see how well they achieve their goals, and perhaps hold parties accountable for repeated failures (although this too could be gamed by the other party pushing laws that try to thwart the other party’s predictions).
I don’t favor race-based reparations, though I do think that’s part of the rationale for a UBI, i.e. that some part of the current wealth distribution is due to injustice of many kinds (and moreover that that will always be true).
Are you really asking what the difference is between a universal basic income and slavery?
See, like this. 25% of US citizens aren’t white. When we talk about “the US”, it includes a whole lot of people that aren’t white. When the right talks about a version of the US that is all white, they’re talking about a time that never really existed, and never will exist, and they’re failing to describe a realistic vision of the future.
While I don’t agree that this is true of “most” problems, I do agree that over-commitment to an ideal is dangerous. This is a solid response to my argument here, and one that I will need to think about more.
This is true, though I think a similar argument can be made about the left. A significant part of the white population wasn’t here during slavery and the benefits they get from it are at most incidental; instead they came to the US destitute, escaping persecution in their native lands. Similarly many the non-white citizens descend from the oppressor class of other countries/cultures, e.g. those wealthy and powerful enough to evade wars, or to send their children to US universities. A past where all white people lived large on the backs of all non-white people never existed.