Ancient Economics For Modern Times

⁶ This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, “Let them marry whom they think best; only it must be into a clan of their father’s tribe that they are married, ⁷ so that no inheritance of the Israelites shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for all Israelites shall retain the inheritance of their ancestral tribes.

Numbers 36:6, The Bible, Old Testament

So, at last, we have a half-way sensible budget! Last week, the UK Chancellor delivered her first budget. Thankfully, the neo-liberal rhetoric of the general election was just that – rhetoric. What was actually served on budget day was a clear expression of traditional Labour values. Half-way sensible because General Election promises has meant the Chancellor resorting to raising employer national insurance contributions – a maybe dubious move. But, at least there was a return to common-sense economics – you get what you pay for! Someone has to pay in order to restore public services to good health and for investment in the economy. The new government has decided that it should be businesses.

What the Chancellor’s first budget demonstrates is that the economy of a society is determined by the ethical framework that is applied. The social ethics of the Bible as expressed in the law of the Jubilee (1) are usually considered irrelevant and unworkable in a modern capitalist society but the underlying principles are, in fact, directly applicable. As encapsulated in the biblical quotation above the gift of the Promised Land is for the people of Israel – not just a ruling elite. It insists that every family possesses an inalienable right to their own parcel of land.

What we see here is the delineation of society’s stakeholders as the people. The social ethics of the Bible lay down the principle that each and every stakeholder in society should have the same inalienable right to the economic resources necessary to support themselves and to flourish. In modern economies land is not the basic resource we use to measure and allocate economic resource that role is taken by money. Applying this fundamental biblical principle thus means that every individual should possess appropriate financial resources to support themselves and to build their lives. The idea of a universal basic income/universal basic wage sometimes discussed amongst economists is thus not so far-fetched if you are keen on seeing biblical principles applied in modern society. This is the idea that every adult receives out of general taxation, as a right, an income that would enable them to live at a minimum standard.

Many Christians when first encountering this notion feel that this is something for nothing and a recipe for laziness. But this is exactly what it was in the Bible – inalienable land by right for nothing! But they still had to work their land wisely. In the same way, people receiving a universal basic income could choose to do nothing, but to prosper and be fruitful they have to work and use their basic income wisely. For the state, the advantages seem numerous: welfare support, welfare benefits, state pensions etc. all  become unnecessary. Administration of a universal benefit is simple and inexpensive (no need to means test or assess eligibility). Taxation becomes simple as all earned income  can be taxed directly at some appropriate level without the exemptions and allowances that bedevil most taxation systems and which create cliff-edges when benefits/exemptions are removed/reduced as earned income increases.  People would still be able to prosper and, for some, become rich, but inheritance tax (the year of the Jubilee) will ensure that excessive wealth accumulated by individuals is returned to the wider economy and thus to every stakeholder.

The law of the Jubilee and its underlying ethical principles might have been originally decreed for an ancient agrarian society, but they can be applied directly to great benefit to modern society. For Christians this must surely be a good thing.

1. The Most Hated Tax, Diary of a Maybe Retired Pastor, 25.10.2024