Consider this Torah verse: from Rabbi Daniel Lapin
"If a man steals an ox or a sheep and then kills it, or sells it, he must pay the value of five oxen for an ox and the value of four sheep for a sheep.(Exodus 21:37)
Why does God want the miscreant who deprives his victim of an ox to pay a higher restitution than one who deprives him of a sheep? What's the difference between on ox and a sheep?
Ancient Jewish wisdom helps us understand that a sheep in Scripture means an asset. When you own a sheep, it throws off income in the form of wool. However, an ox means a tool for earning your living. When you own an ox, you have the means to plow your field or pull your wagon to market.
Stealing a man's asset is bad enough...but stealing a tool with which he earns a living! God views that as considerably worse and requires restitution to be appropriately higher. Earning a living is a holy activity and the tools that make it possible acquire some holiness too."
I concur with the Hebrew God on this. Too bad it means nothing in the political-moral system that has dominated mankind for the past 50 millenia. When the commercial moral system comes to have more importance we will punish Luddites who destroy property and especially IRS corrupt officials who act like 'hackers' to destroy or harm large productive systems.
(Thanks Susan G.)