By Mark Fowler

The latest developments in San Francisco prove, as if there were ever any doubt, that there is no level below which politicians will not stoop to seduce voters for their votes. Earlier this month, the new mayor, Daniel Lurie, signed a resolution unanimously passed by the city council to establish a “reparations fund” for blacks who have suffered harm while living in San Francisco. Recipients could receive as much as $5 million apiece.

Well.

There are a few wrinkles left to be ironed out. First, San Francisco, under the leadership of Mayor London Breed, who recently left office, is $1 billion in debt. Second, no taxes will be implemented to fund this boondoggle. It appears that private donations will be relied upon. (The one positive aspect of this idiocy is that it will not take money from people who never owned slaves to give to people who never were slaves). There are 46,000 black people in San Francisco, so the total bill will be $230 billion.

The money will be awarded to people who suffered harm in San Francisco on account of their African American heritage as descendants of slaves. This is, of course, impossible to administer. So, a series of questions arises:

1. How much do you get if only 1 of 16 ancestors (that is, one of 16 great-great-grandparents) was a slave?

2. If your heritage includes Native American Indians, Asian Indians, and Caucasians, how much is owed?

3. If a black American otherwise eligible is in prison for two counts of murder, can the victim’s families obtain a lien on his payment?

4. If an otherwise eligible black American has never paid child support for his four children by four different mothers, can those mothers obtain a lien on the payment?

5. What is the “harm” sufficiently grievous to give rise to an award? Being denied a loan? Being arrested erroneously, but immediately released? Being mocked at school by other school children? What about being socially promoted through school while never having learned how to read and write?

6. Is there a time limit on the “harm”? Ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? What if the only provable harm is the refusal of a white homeowner to sell to a black person, now deceased? Does the right to payment survive and pass to the heir of the aggrieved person?

Of course, these knotty questions were not addressed. If the fund never receives an amount sufficient to make 46,000 black people multimillionaires, when will the project be called off, and what will be done with the money?

If the fund were established, the one class of individuals guaranteed to benefit will be the lawyers fighting over the money. The sad part of this is that the program isn’t intended to do anything at all except virtue signal by progressive politicians. It is government by farce. It will stir up hopes among people that will be dashed.

But for the time being, it will give false hope to African Americans and appease those clamoring for reparations. It is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It is despicable.