One argument constantly made for reparations is that it would close the racial wealth gap.  Basically, the argument goes that slavery created a great transfer of wealth to white people, and it's time to transfer all that wealth back to black people.  That might be a persuasive argument if white people were the only slave-owners, only black people had been slaves, the slave-owners were still alive to be penalized, and the slaves were still alive to collect their money.

As it is, paying huge amounts of money to people based solely on their skin color is a bit like winning the lottery.  There's a reason why lottery winners are much more likely to declare bankruptcy following a big win than the average American plugging away at a job.  That reason can be summed up as "easy come, easy go."  It's hard to think of anything easier than collecting money based on what color you happen to be born without even the trouble of buying a lottery ticket.

The racial wealth gap wasn't always as big as it is today.  In the years following the Civil War, the ratio of white to black per capita wealth closed dramatically.  In 1860, the ratio was 60.  By 1870, just five years after the Civil War ended, the ratio was 30.  Considering that blacks had been enslaved and were starting from scratch, many with no formal education, that's a startling accumulation of wealth.

Image: African-American classroom near Tuskegee, circa 1902.

Or maybe it's not so startling.  Eighteen seventy was also the year that the Preparatory High School for Negro Youth was founded in Washington, D.C.  Blacks were demanding education, schools were opening across the country, and this particular school was one of the first high schools for black teenagers.  The curriculum was so rigorous that many of the students went on to graduate from Harvard and Yale and become prominent public figures.  By the turn of the 20th century, the majority of all blacks were literate.

In the 21st century, black entrepreneurs like Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey are some of the wealthiest people in the country.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lists more than 17 directories of small businesses owned by blacks.

America has always been the land of opportunity for people of all colors and creeds.  If people choose not to take advantage of their opportunities, that is not a racial issue.  It is an issue of character, and character, or the lack of it, can never be addressed with a pile of cash.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of Future Slave, a story about a 21st-century black teenager who goes back in time and becomes a slave in the Old South.