“Fundamental to the Judeo-Christian principles that founded this nation was an understanding that people were uniquely created for a purpose and commanded to make something of themselves and the world they were given. All were encouraged to be fruitful and multiply, subduing the uncivilized earth, leaving it better and more developed than they found it. All were instructed to be content with what their own hands produced, not looking over the fence to see what they could get from their neighbor.”

Former NBA star Charles Barkley recently drew national attention with his candid comments referring to the envy between “successful blacks” and “non-intelligent blacks” as being like “crabs in a barrel”. Mr. Barkley was referring to an African proverb — “Put one crab in a pot and it will escape. Put two crabs in a pot and neither will escape.”

The point of this proverb is that envy destroys everyone. Whatever your reaction to Barkley’s perception of an issue in his community, envy and covetousness are actually national problems. Americans have difficulty remembering, much less keeping, the 10th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Covet.

This often-overlooked, last of the Ten Commandments impacts not only consumer behavior, it is reshaping federal policy and poisoning American culture along with its economic future.

Fundamental to the Judeo-Christian principles that founded this nation was an understanding that people were uniquely created for a purpose and commanded to make something of themselves and the world they were given. All were encouraged to be fruitful and multiply, subduing the uncivilized earth, leaving it better and more developed than they found it. All were instructed to be content with what their own hands produced, not looking over the fence to see what they could get from their neighbor.

In the Old World and among centralized economies, aristocratic strangleholds on wealth and opportunity limited individual advancement. Education, ownership of property, and access to markets were controlled as a matter of policy and privilege. But America offered that uniquely hopeful chance to rise as far as one’s skills could go. Coupled with the freedom to own property, this unleashed an economic juggernaut.

Such revolutionary opportunity sparked an exodus, as people fled communist regimes, socialist controls, paternalistic constructs, and greedy dictatorships for a level playing field allowing for meritocracy. A distinctly faith-based concept – “hard work yields a profit” — was the inspiration for economic growth that stunned the world as liberty, justice, creativity and hard work forged to create an unprecedented rise in personal and national wealth.

But today’s cultural leaders argue not for a level playing field of opportunity, but equal outcomes without regard to effort or ability. Political and economic leaders talk about people’s resources as jealously as feuding relatives at the reading of a will.

Having traveled extensively around the world working on issues of personal finance, economics, and poverty alleviation, I now come home and easily identify the toxic covetousness of elitist, socialist, and communist thought that are becoming common here. Success is not celebrated but scrutinized to determine whether the individual should be allowed to prosper, and how much the government might allow them to keep.

Coveting the possessions of others becomes toxic when the power of governments is engaged in attempting to redress what is labeled as unfair — personal success and its rewards. When governments take for themselves the power to decide whose accomplishments are acceptable, the proverbial Pandora’s box has been opened.

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