The Year of Jubilee

Every fifty years, the ancient Israelites would celebrate the Year of Jubilee as outlined in Leviticus 25 in the Bible. This is a year when debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, the poor were cared for, and property was returned to its original owner. Although God gave Israel land as a gift in the Old Testament, he still retained full ownership and control, making their ownership temporary. This tradition symbolized what life with God looks like–how nothing is entirely man’s alone but bestowed by God in the covenantal relationship he made with his people.

This decree can simply be thought of as divinely-bestowed public insurance. As Mueller outlines in Public Choice III, it parallels modern redistribution programs that encourage communal support. In the presence of uncertainty, the Israelites committed to caring for one another by pooling resources at the risk of their future comfort. In a sense, God formed a natural monopoly through shared goods that were under His ultimate control. In uncertainty, any individual can be rational and selfish and still agree to redistribution of goods. For the Israelites, they agreed to this out of a mix of fear and devotion to God, but they still end up being better off because of it. When everyone contributes, each person ends up equally better off without hurting anyone else, meaning they are in a Pareto-efficient allocation.