The new Jubilee

I've been ruminating on this thought for a while. I think the whole bailout system we've got going is very intriguing.

Remember that one time when God told the Israelites to set up a deal where they didn't plant crops every seventh year? Where they set slaves free every fiftieth year? Where all debts were forgiven in the fiftieth year? This was intended to create an egalitarian society where the rich didn't keep getting richer and the poor didn't keep getting oppressed.

Now thankfully America is really progressive. We're now concerned about corporations that are about to go under. Those poor suffering groups of people who (are depersonalized with the corporation moniker and) spent years in wild speculation but are screwing the economy for everyone and especially the little guy who has no bailout.

In the Jewish model, people forgave people, and there was accountability (when/if jubilee was ever practiced). Now the people forgive pseudo-people through an intermediary that does a poor job of oversight. The problem is, few of the people in charge of corporations today were alive at the last major fall. The people running the spurious financial instruments were primarily young pups.

I understand the "too big to fail" concept. I do not want the economy to tank for years to come. But at the same time, I don't want the corporate memory to be as short as it has been. What if we all learned our lesson? One of the authors I work with, David Cowan, says, "If the bank isn't good enough to stay afloat, let the damn thing fail!" It's hilarious because he said this from the stage at a conservative Christian gathering.

From just about every angle, I think it's wrong to bail out irresponsible corporations. In that really long range way (because the public hasn't had to pay the national debt . . . yet), the middle class and up are financially responsible for the bailout. (Wait, are these loans to corporations "pay as you can"? I hope they all get paid back.) If we let them fail, I'm afraid the poorest people would be hurt the worst. In that sense, I think the bailout might be needed. But from a jubilee perspective, and from a sanity perspective, I'm not a fan.