Jubilee

Just when you thought things were getting as bad as they could get, along came somebody who reaffirmed our faith in humanity.

This past week, one of the worlds richest men, Warren Buffett, announced plans to give away to charity (in particular the Bill Gates Foundation), the second largest personal charitable donation in history. Western society inherited a biblical term which Mr. Buffett's plan reminds those blessed with money, of how they should live. It is called the "Jubilee." In the old Jewish faith, they observed a Sabbatical every seven years. This Sabbatical affected land use. By law, every seven years the land was to be left unused, or if used, only by the poor who did not own land of their own. The Sabbatical did not end there. After seven Sabbaticals or 49 years, the 50th year was know as the Jubilee Year.

In this year, land was returned to the original families who had owned it.

Indentured servants were given their freedom, and most debts were wiped out.

I wondered about this system, and decided it had a very practical plan behind it. Think about it. How many times have you heard someone say, "there will always be poor people. If you gave all the poor people money in just a short time they would all be broke again." Of course you have heard that, and quite frankly, it has a ring of truth to it. Some people just seem to have the capacity to make and accumulate wealth. At the same time others can never seem to get ahead. They struggle and are always short of money. The obvious problem with this system, is that those people with money are generally more powerful, and control what happens in their societies.

Throughout the teachings of all religions around the world there is the warning again and again against the dangers of too much wealth. Yet, nothing is more promoted in our daily lives than the good life that only riches can bring. We are bombarded with media and advertisements that make us want those very entitlements which will supposedly make us happy.

America is now by far the richest country on earth.

Such was not always the case. Unlike many other European countries like Spain and Portugal, we had a very limited number of nobility or royalty move to the new world. Most of the original settlers in this country came for religious freedom or just the chance to make a new life on their own land.

The United States was the largest debtor nation on earth until the end of World War I. We were poor and now we are rich. What is astonishing is that we never seem to have enough wealth now.

We have the lowest amount of personal savings in the history of our country. Few of our citizens have any money laid back for a rainy day. Most people are weighed down by debt for homes, vehicles, and credit cards. At the same time well over half of all wealth in this country is owed by just a small group of our citizens.

I shall always remember the line from the movie "China Town," when Jack Nicholson asks the wealthy Noah Cross (played by John Houston, who was actually born in Nevada), why he needed any more money when he was so rich. His answer was simple, "because I can!" Wealth seems to breed in many a sense of stinginess and greed.

They often resent poor people feeling that they are a threat to the rich. It is good to see that there are still people like Buffett and Gates who don't have that same idea.

Both have more money than they could ever spend. Both have families they could pass all that wealth to without probably losing much in the process, and still both have heard a higher calling of human need and fulfillment. In the last century Andrew Carnegie who was a ruthless steel baron, also had life changing attitude. He gave away millions for public works and libraries like the old library building next to McDonalds.

Ancient societies knew that wealth in an of itself was a destructive element. Celebrations like the Jubilee were one way of evening out the scales of wealth and poverty. Unfortunately most of us today are so stressed about just paying the bills that we forget simple charity and the personal rejuvenation it brings to us.

Silas Marner allowed himself to be drowned because he refused to let go of his bag of gold. It is very comforting to see business leaders like Buffett and Gates set an example for us all.

Give when you have the chance. Sharing the wealth is good for the soul of you and our country. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and it has no reward. An old fashioned Jubilee might do us all some good.