can we apply jubilee principles?

The Biblical principle of Jubilee has been popularised by the campaign to cancel developing world debt. Jubilee laws might offer us some help when thinking about economic reform. In Deuteronomy 15 we find that every seven years the Israelites were required to cancel debts to each other. Every 50 years, the land was reallocated to its original owners (Leviticus 25). These laws worked in combination with a ban on charging interest for loans. There was nothing to prevent a market economy working within these laws (though they applied to an agrarian economy).

Debt cancellation prevented distortions and injustices building up in the economy – all debts were cancelled. The charging of interest rates was probably regarded as an unequal relationship between risk and reward since the lender risked little on a loan secured on an asset and the borrower carried the risks. The asset redistribution in the year of Jubilee is particularly interesting. It suggests people of each generation were to have equal opportunities, since the land was the main source of income.

Applying these principles to a 21st century economy would not be easy. However, a good starting point would be to consider what an economy would look like based on equal opportunities for each generation. Given that financial instability is probably a permanent feature of capitalism, it might make sense to have mechanisms to ensure debt write-offs, when they occur, are applied consistently.

Stephen Beer.