Our shul is having an an internal debate on how much to align ourselves with the Occupy movement. So we had a teach-in, and for that, I did some research on the Biblical and earlier history of the Jubilee tradition. Turns out damaging concentrations of wealth, and ways deal with the economic problems they cause, have both been around for a long time. The Torah is full of what is basically commercial law, which has always seemed kind of boring next to miracles and war and murder and the like, but when approached with the right mindset can be quite fascinating.
One insight I did not bring to the table: The movie version of Fight Club is centered around a debt-retirement scheme, achieved in that case through violence represented by blowing up the office buildings of credit card companies.
The teach-in was only moderately successful from my perspective. I am not big on face-to-face group meeting/discussions, I vastly prefer to have such things over email or similar medium where you don't have everyone constantly jockeying for get their turn to speak, where digressions don't waste people's time, and points can be followed up at leisure…on the other hand, you can't share food that way, and that is half the point of these things.
[Earlier postings on the subject]
1 comment:
I'm curious what would happen if people started observing the 7-year sabbatical year. Would orderly, predictable deleveraging on a national basis prevent business cycle problems? Could it be a consistent, tame business cycle?
- L{DiracDelta(t)}
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