Conversation With a Young Person, Part I

I saw a young man shouting in the street,
he couldn’t have been much more than twenty,
and for some reason felt ever so mad
about his country, this land of plenty.

He seemed to be so very passionate,
so I went over and readied my phone,
asked, “Can I talk with you about your cause?
I think my listeners would like the know.”

Now the young fellow seemed wary at first,
and I do not blame him for that these days,
I said, “When you’re done we can get diner,
talk some place quiet, and off course I’ll pay.”

The fellow seemed to be all right with this,
went back to protest with all of his strength,
later we went to a diner down the road,
and took out seats in a booth, on a bench.

I said then, “Tell me, what is it you want?”
He spoke, “I want the rich to pay their fair share.”
I said, “They pay half of all the taxes.”
He said, “They should pay more, if they really care.”

I thought and said, “Let us do some math here,
if you taxed all the right one hundred percent,
took all the money they had to their name,
it would pay for just eight months of government.

“Then, after that, there would be no rich left,
and consequences would be greater than that,
since rich folk get that way from their business,
with those, goodbye jobs, that would be bad.

“The working class folk you claim to support,
they could not earn money, could not survive.
You have to see that it’s all connected,
if one ‘class’ goes down, all the others die.”

I hoped he would stop and think for a bit,
but he said, “They stole their wealth from us, it’s sick.
Don’t you see we’re building a better world,
one not obsessed with things economic.

“A world that isn’t so base and commercial,
where people get paid according to need.”
I nodded despite his naivete,
spoke calmly, “I do not think that you see…

“All civilization is economic,
trade is the reason all of this is here.
Towns exist to simplify access to goods,
and centralize jobs, make sure they are near.

“All this was built by men seeking profit,
and doing so benefited all the people.
When it comes to ‘need’ I don’t think you have
considered all the implications in full.

“You can’t ever pay all folks the same waves,
because every job has not the same strain,
you can’t pay a doctor like a bus boy,
even thinking about that is insane.

“Think of all the schooling doctors must have,
the responsibility of their shoulders,
how often they’re sued if something goes wrong,
would they do it if the pay wasn’t richer?

CONCLUDES IN PART II.

Copyright © David Welch | Year Posted 2020

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