[smt88]

> To be fair

There's no way to be fair with this. There is no "rightful owner" of this gold, so anything that's done with it is unfair in some way.

It's true that the descendants of the people who were harmed in the collection (stealing, mining, or both) of that gold were not alive then, but their current conditions were determined by the behavior of the colonists who collected the gold.

They would have inherited a very different (likely better) life if the colonists had not arrived.

[dotancohen]

  > They would have inherited a very different (likely better) life if the colonists had not arrived.

This presents a very rosy-glasses version of history, likely based on the noble savage myth. Do you have any idea how the standard of living has changed in the past 600 years? Malnutrition, disease, lifespan, hours of leisure, infant mortality, are all far better today than they were in Precolumbian south america, even among the poor.

[RobertoG]

Better today that they were in Precolonial South-America and better that they were in Europe at the time.

[towaway15463]

They might have been up to the bronze age by now