Reparations -- Idle Computing

Disclaimer: there are a few assumptions in the calculations below. In addition, I often make simple arithmetic errors, and with big numbers, I often lose track of the number of zeroes involved. This is for my own use trying to figure out what reparations might cost the nation. Your numbers may vary.

• Slave generations, 10: 1776 - 1865 (wiki says either 10 or 12 generations; I used the more conservative number of 10)
• 10 generations x 40 years of work for each generation
• average: 10 cents/day for wages across all generations
• 40 years * 365 *10 cents = $1,460 * four family members per generation = $5,840 for one family across ten generations of slavery
• the family would have taken their earnings and invested the $5,840 in the British and US stock markets over the years and the portfolio would have grown to $8,650 by 1865
• the family’s portfolio would have grown to $1,467,045 at the height of the “Roaring 20’s” (1920s)
• fortunately, the family would have had the foresight to sell before the  market crashed; the family would have kept the $1.5 million in cash until WWII
• the family then would have invested the $1.5 million in the US stock market during the post-war boom, growing the portfolio to $2.3 million by 1955
• spotting IBM, the company would have invested much of the $2.3 million in IBM in 1955, which then grew to $230 million by 1984
• in 1984, the family would have spotted a small company called Apple and would have sold most of their IBM to buy shares in AAPL; the portfolio grew to $2.14 billion as of 2015
• so, by all rights, this family is owed a “reparations” check of $2.14 billion 
• since “every” African-American can trace his/her heritage back to a  slave family, the 37 million African Americans * $2.14 billion = $79 million billion or 79 thousand thousand billion or 79 thousand trillion or $79,000 trillion.