Each ten years, a gaggle of German farmers collect within the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a land lottery courting again centuries.
Erika Beras/NPR
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Erika Beras/NPR
Each ten years, a gaggle of German farmers collect within the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a land lottery courting again centuries.
Erika Beras/NPR
Each ten years, a gaggle of German farmers collect within the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a ritual courting again centuries. Osing refers back to the space. And verlosung means “lottery,” as in a land lottery. The entire land on this communal land is randomly reassigned to farmers who decide to farming it for the subsequent decade.
Lots of of years in the past, a neighborhood in Germany got here up with their very own, distinctive answer for easy methods to greatest allocate scarce sources. For this neighborhood, the lottery is a approach to try to make the system of land allotment extra truthful and keep away from battle.
Immediately on the present, we go to the lottery and observe alongside as each farmer has a shot at getting the proper piece of land — or absolutely the worst piece of land! And we see what we will be taught from this residing, medieval custom that tries to stability equity and effectivity.
This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang. Reporting assist from Sofia Shchukina. It was reality checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money‘s government producer.
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