Three Mountains (14) - Solutions to Inequality

Inequality of income becomes a festering sore the weaken society. Secular societies have come up with two solutions to inequality.

1. The most popular solution to inequality is progressive taxation. This solution is immoral. There is not moral basis for confiscating the wealth of the rich and giving it to the poor. The other problem with this solution is that progressive taxation destroys many of the incentives that have made free-market capitalism so productive.

2. The other popular solution is revolution: shoot the rich and let the poor grab what they can. This solution is immoral and destructive. Revolution destroys the productive capacity of a society, so it generally makes everyone worse off.

Secular solutions to inequality have failed. The Bible provides two solutions.

1. In Old Testament times, the main form of capital was land. The Jubilee laws ensured that land remained reasonably evenly distributed across the entire population. If a family became poor and sold their land to settle debts, the purchaser of the land was required to return it to the original owner in the jubilee year. This mean that the distribution of income generated wealth was distributed evenly again at the beginning of each new generation.



2. The New Testament brought an even better solution to the problem of inequality. Acceptance of the gospel of Jesus leads to a great outpouring of giving that can counteract the flow of wealth from the bottom to the top. The gospel creates a continuous voluntary Jubilee.

Paul explained God’s will.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality (2 Cor 8:13).

God does not want those who have much to get more and those who little to get less. He prefers the opposite; that everyone should have what they need, and no one should have more than they need.