Distributive Justice – How capital and goods are distributed throughout society.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…" and only God is eternal. Therefore, everything ultimately belongs to God. Yet God created us to be "stewards" of his creation. "Steward" is not widely used today. I love its Old English origins. Hundreds of years ago, the most valued possession of the landed class was their herds of swine.
Consequently, you entrusted your swine to your most trusted "ward." A ward is someone who is under another's legal authority. (Thus, we have expressions like an orphaned child being a "ward of the state" or having a prison "warden" who keeps watch over his wards.) Since the most important ward for the English landowner was the one who watched the pigs, you would find this ward working in the pig sty. The most trusted ward was the "sty-ward," which eventually morphed into "steward." We are stewards of creation.
What we own and produce comes from God and goes back to God; our only relationship to wealth is as stewards. In Deuteronomy 8, God warned:
17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.
As all other economic issues are discussed, God as the ultimate owner must be remembered.
So what is our relationship to wealth as stewards? There is tension expressed within the Old Testament law. Clearly, private property was taken for granted. One of the Ten Commandments was "Thou shall not steal." There are numerous references about appropriate restitution when someone's property has been taken or damaged by another. Private property was central to Old Testament economic life.
However, ownership of private property was not absolute.
4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the LORD is sure to bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 5 if only you will obey the LORD your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. Deut 15:4-5 (NRSV)
The law required that farmers not harvest to the edge of the field. (Leviticus 23:22) The Jubilee restricted the permanent land transfer. (Leviticus 25) Also, the Israelites were required to contribute to the Levites' care and certain governmental activities. There were communal issues that took precedence over property rights. Yet, nowhere in Scripture do we see a mandate for an equal income distribution. Some argue that the Jubilee Code in Leviticus 25 was wealth redistribution, but I will show in a few more posts that this is not what the Jubilee Code was about. The Jubilee Code was about preventing perpetual poverty in the first place and reminding the people about the origins of their wealth.
Seemingly, God desires to have billions of Adams and Eves working their own "gardens." God created all of us to be stewards of his resources, and he entrusts specific portions to us, rewarding faithful stewardship with expanded stewardship over more resources. When all goods are held in common, productivity and creativity tend to drop to the level of the laziest and most incompetent. There is no incentive to work. Any increased productivity merely accrues to the slackers. Private property encourages the conscientious use of resources to their maximum benefit. Without private property over which we are individually accountable, there can be no stewardship. Therefore, the most economically productive arrangement is private property. Still, God's mandate that there "be no one in need among you" trumps productivity. This tension exists within the Old Testament Laws concerning distributive justice.
Greetings! I found your link through the Blessed Economist (he links to me, too).
One thing often (okay, always!) overlooked with regards to property ownership in a place like the US is that the combination of zoning laws, minimum wage laws, building codes and ordinances and building permit processes creates a minimum wealth threshold for participation in land ownership. Zoning laws create a minimum size lot (hence purchase price) in a community. It is not therefore surprising that the poor remain poor. They are priced out of living in the community of their choice.
Posted by: Steve Scott | Dec 29, 2007 at 03:12 AM
Update to my previous comment: I should have written, "They are priced out of living in the community of their choice - by law."
Posted by: Steve Scott | Dec 29, 2007 at 03:18 AM