Income redistribution is a hot button issue. Is it communist? Something that would destroy capitalism? Or is it like those taxes we pay for public schools, paid even by those who have no children?

What about an updated Year of Jubilee? The Biblical passage of Leviticus 25 called for a “Year of Jubilee” every fiftieth year in the ancient Hebrew nation. Simply stated, land bought from others (and presumably used to increase the wealth of the buyer) would be returned to the original owner that year.

Obviously, such a practice would be difficult to carry out in modern society. What it suggests is the principle of sharing the means of producing wealth with those who have lost out in society’s economic scramble. They get another chance to compete.

The Year of Jubilee didn’t condemn wealth, nor the creation of wealth. But the chance to produce wealth is to be shared with the less fortunate for the good of all. Rather than direct payment, it meant giving them the means to make their own wealth. Today, it could mean investment in a superior education for every child or an economic system which rewards honest labor with honest wages It’s one solution for the tendency of money to accumulate more and more in the hands of a few. Pay it ahead.