Jubilee Capitalism

Jubilee Capitalism July 4, 2015

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PZ Myers shared the cartoon above. It struck me as reflecting on it that there is an interesting convergence between the radical egalitarian meritocracy talked about in the comic, and the vision of the Jubilee law in the Bible. The Jubilee law required that once a generation, land would revert to its original owner. The possibility of accumulating wealth infinitely and indefinitely was eliminated, and the recuperation of land meant that the children or grandchildren those who had fallen into poverty had another chance to start with a clean slate.

It is just as noteworthy that conservative voices in our time do not call for the application of Biblical economic models such as the Jubilee law, any more than they desire to really have an economy which genuinely reflects the conviction that no one should have what they did not earn, and that if people start on a level playing field of genuinely equal opportunity, then their success or failure will be what they deserve.


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