Scavenger Economics

Has there ever been a more obscene idea
than trickle-down economics:
that, if we make the rich very rich,
the wealth will trickle-down to the rest of us?

There has been a more obscene idea:
that if you say that, the rest of us will believe it.

It rests on the assumption that the problem
is that someone has plugged the pipe,
and if we can just unplug it, and let the rich get rich,
there will be so much wealth that all of us
will walk on streets of gold,
and have our very own harps and pearls.

What the trickle-down theory does prove
is that there are smart people, and stupid ones.
Throwing the whole hog to the lion
does not make the scavenger fat.
The scavenger hopes for scraps.

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