New poem: The Economy - we love to hear that it's doing well

The ‘economy’...how we love to hear that the

economy is doing well, the economy is picking up,

there’s a strong economy. When we hear that, we

know that things are looking good. Things are

getting better. The economy. How we love the

economy when it’s doing well. If fact, you can be

doing very badly when the economy is doing well.

That doesn’t matter, though. If you know the

economy is doing well, you feel good. In fact, many

hundreds of thousands of people may be doing

very badly, and still the economy might be doing

well. How mysterious. How could that be? Could

it be that the economy is doing well precisely

because hundreds of thousands of people are

doing badly? Could it be that when people are

paid less or hardly anything at all, this makes it

easier for very few people to make much more?

Could it be that what goes for the ‘economy’ is

really a way of talking about how successful are

those people at doing well out of paying people

less or hardly anything at all? Yes, an economy

can be doing well, with people begging in the

street. Never mind that, though. The economy is

doing well. We love to hear that. Even the beggars

love to hear that. They can’t afford a radio or TV

so you’ll have to tell them. Why not pop down to

a soup kitchen near you and say, ‘Hello everyone,

the economy is doing well, the economy is strong’?

They’ll love it.