A mechanism design framework for historical value attribution and restorative distribution for African Americans.
Reparations debates stall on unanswerable questions:
- How much? → No agreed methodology
- Who qualifies? → Arbitrary cutoffs exclude legitimate claimants
- Is it fair? → Political negotiation, not principled calculation
- How do we know? → False precision hides real uncertainty
Apply cryptoeconomic mechanism design to create transparent, defensible, self-correcting systems:
| Mechanism | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Dependency Graph | Trace how modern wealth depends on historical unpaid labor |
| Pairwise Comparison | Relative value assessment ("Was A > B?") instead of impossible absolute valuation |
| Fuzzy Mathematics | Honest uncertainty (ranges) instead of false precision |
| Shapley Values | Fair attribution based on marginal contribution |
| Fuzzy Set Membership | Graduated qualification (0-1) instead of binary cutoffs |
Value was created, not just extracted. Enslaved people didn't just lose wages—they built the foundation of American wealth. That value compounded for 160+ years. It can be traced. It can be attributed. It can be fairly distributed.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Retroactive Reparations Protocol | Full whitepaper with mechanism design details |
- Value Attribution, Not Guilt Assignment - This is accounting, not blame
- Living System - Updates as new historical evidence emerges
- Honest Uncertainty - Fuzzy numbers like "$500B-7.5T" instead of fake precision
- No Arbitrary Cutoffs - Partial documentation = partial share, not exclusion
- Measurable Completion - Ends when racial wealth gap closes, not politically
Traditional Approach:
Political negotiation → Arbitrary numbers → Contested legitimacy
Mechanism Design Approach:
Dependency graph → Pairwise comparison → Fuzzy aggregation →
Shapley distribution → Transparent methodology → Updatable system
The Shapley value from cooperative game theory answers: What is each participant's fair share of jointly-created value?
Applied to reparations:
- What was the marginal contribution of enslaved labor to American wealth?
- Without that labor, how much less wealth would exist today?
- That difference is the fair share—mathematically defined, not politically negotiated.
This is a starting point, not a final answer. We invite:
- Historians to refine the dependency graph
- Economists to improve value attribution models
- Mathematicians to advance fuzzy aggregation methods
- Communities to participate in governance design
- Policymakers to translate framework into implementation
- Critics to identify flaws so we can fix them
MIT
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
This framework is an attempt to bend it deliberately.