Jim Huntzinger | On October 5, 2020

Ferdinand Bol – Moses descends from Mount Siniai with the Ten Commandments.

In the later part of the 20^th century and on into the 21^st century, the claims of wealth inequity run rampant. But is this the case; and, if it is the case, is it destructive to the Great Experiment – or to the individuals of the United States?

A simple math model can shed some light on this. The lower end of wealth is limited; that is, a person can only drop to the level of zero wealth. Some minor level less than zero is possible – debt in which you owe more than your accumulated wealth – but it is very limited, as creditors will cut off debt once an individual reaches this point.[1]

On the other side of the wealth level, the amount of possible wealth is almost limitless. Therefore, if an economy is growing – this is, individuals are individually and collectively (companies) accumulating wealth through providing products and services – there should be an expectation of the citizens rising in their amount of accumulated wealth. In fact, if this phenomenon is not happening, that is a detriment to society. It simply means that society is non-productive.

The collectivist-statist desire to make the wealth inequity more equal, but the only way to accomplish this would be to steal others’ property and redistribute to others of lesser wealth. This propaganda is promoted through class warfare by invoking envy. “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”[2]

Envy is actually a direct form of covetousness. It violates one of God’s Ten Commandments; so it is a serious enough sin that God issued it to Moses and the Israelites. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”[3] Essentially God commands that “Thou shall not envy!”[4] Income redistribution by force and dictate, and fermenting this belief and behavior, is sin. Therefore, it goes against Natural Law and the principles of America.

There are several catastrophic follies to this. First, it violates principles of the United States – the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Under our Compact, specifically the moral or social compact, the Declaration, it recounts equality that which God has already established; all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. As historian Burt Folsom brilliantly concludes, “Equality, in other words, is a framework, not a result.”[5]

Originally published on Townhall Finance.

Jim Huntzinger

Jim Huntzinger began his career as a manufacturing engineer with Aisin Seiki (a Toyota Group company and manufacturer of automotive components) when they transplanted to North America to support Toyota. Over his career he has also researched at length the evolution of manufacturing in the United States with an emphasis on lean’s influence and development. In addition to his research on TWI, he has extensively researched the history of Ford’s Highland Park plant and its direct tie to Toyota’s business model and methods of operation.

Huntzinger is the President and Founder of Lean Frontiers and a graduate from Purdue University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology and received a M.S. in Engineering Management from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He authored the book, Lean Cost Management: Accounting for Lean by Establishing Flow, was a contributing author to Lean Accounting: Best Practices for Sustainable Integration.