0.1%

Cherry

By Di_Hard

Sat, 05 Aug 2023
  • 709 reads
15 comments
 

our burning issue?

Poverty is sin

and soul's end the means

to reach new Heaven :

Space, where guilt's weightless

and wealth won't decay

 

though years earned, taking

others' way to earn -

through efficiencies

is more profit made

(at expense of lives) 

 

caring's for the birds

 

like those dead at sea -

unseen bodies all

the same, drowned in hope

of finding better 

 

for - if Super-Rich -

commonality

of our beating hearts

is dust left behind

 

yet not we, but Trees

make you possible

by breathing their green

peaceful perfection

 

and rooted with them

all family trees

reach back to when Earth

was valued, not worth

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

It's not poverty but profit that's the sin that's destroying our world. 

In so many places things are no longer allowed to exist if they don't make a profit. I can't understand how in Victorian Britain they were able to open public baths, public lavatories, public gardens, public libraries, etc. but the current government finds a need to close them because they are not cost effective.

And around the world who has the right to say that this part of the planet is mine so you can't possibly be allowed to live here so you must go back to your war zone or your famine because that's where you come from so I'm sure you'll be much happier there?

I'm not a violent man but if I were ever to meet a member of the 0.1% I would certainly not be passive.

 

all family trees

reach back to when Earth

was valued, not worth

 

Exactly!

 

Good on you Di.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Yes!!! That is how I feel exactly! Thankyou very much for reading and commenting :0) I think (not sure) in Victorian times how many people you employed was a thing of pride, now it is all about how few. From all the programs I listen to about economics and stuff, it is the concentration of wealth in the 0.1% which is the cause of everything falling apart, because government money to spend on everything, from renewable transition to social care, comes from taxes. And only the super rich have enough spare cash to pay the taxes needed. So them having all their accountants and tax loop holes is what is stopping anything being done. The super rich are the only ones who can save the planet. That is why young people see voting as pointless. And like you say, to condemn billions to die, to try to ban them from escaping from parts of the planet made uninhabitable by climate change caused by the industries which made the rich parts of the world rich, that is something for which there are no words

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Hello Di. 

Thanks for your reply to my comment on your poem. It cheered me up a bit.

I am certainly not rich but I know I will be probably be comfortable for the rest of my life, and I consider myself very very lucky to be in that situation. If someone gave me a million pounds I would consider myself very rich. I wouldn't know what to do with any more than that. So I would say that someone who has perhaps fifty million pounds could be considered to be incredibly rich. Why would anybody in the world ever need more than that? But they do, and at the expense of others. I just cannot comprehend how any billionaire could be happy living in a world where there is so much misery caused by poverty. If I was so rich I would want people around me to be happy and I would have to do some sharing out. To live with so much money is complete and utter greed, which I consider totally unforgiveable. It sickens me to the stomach.

And I agree with you entirely about the 'how many people working for you' syndrome. All those public facilities would in the past have had people there employed to look after them, but penny-pinching rich people with only profit or making savings on their minds don't want to pay people to do these jobs. Working class people who would have kept the facilities in a good working condition and who would have paid some tax from their own salaries to improve the economy; each only a little but there would be many of them. Rather than learn from their mistakes of the past the people who decide who stays and who goes are escalating the problem, particular examples of this being the new self checkout arrangements in supermarkets and the need to abolish ticket offices in railway stations. Will it only be a matter of time before unmanned supermarkets and railway stations become the victims of vandalism and have to be closed down completely?

I could say much more about this but every word I write makes me more and more angry. My partner and I talk about this a lot and then, as you said yourself, realise that we are wasting our time because there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Even voting is futile because of the influence of  big businesses and the media and politicians not wanting to rock the boat. Our only hope is that the whole 0.1% thing eventually implodes and those sellfish people find themselves struggling as another 90% of the world's population are doing already.

And that's it! You know now that I think along the same lines as you, which from my experience is enough, so I'll say no more and not even mention Branson's space ship or the submarine that got lost while they were nosing around the Titanic graveyard.

Happy Saturday evening!

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou for telling me I cheered you up a bit - that has cheered me up a bit, too :0)

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Cheers! 

laugh

Turlough

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I always feel a mixture of feelings on reading your pholosophy agonies, Di. 

Some super-rich use their wealth responsibly, kindly, wisely, generously. We can never know. And some who are poor are not kind even when they are being helped (not talking about pompous or condescending help), and most people fall between the extremes.

But greed, and only caring for self, is a problem for us all, and more so if you are very rich.  And simple thankfulness (and seeking good for others) for the good world we have been given is due from all - to the God who made the trees, and will sort out not only the damage in our world, but also our motives and actions.

Also what was said about closing of some free facilities has sometimes been caused by vandalism, crime, danger. damage or non-use. And there is a problem of infiltration of terrorists pretending to be refugees probably, and do we welcome all who are not from a warzone or famine area or persecution danger, but feel they would be better off here. They are questions that have to be faced, but all parties realise the complicaations. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou so much for your very thoughtful comment Rhiannon :0) You always suggest many other ways of thinking about things. Perhaps I will make a section for Philosophy Agonies :0)

 

Submitted by marandina on

"..yet not we, but Trees

make you possible..."

A powerful poem, Di. Lots of things wrong with the world but one of the things that is right is trees. I wonder what they think as humankind's span winds on with all of its injustices. They are the best of us.

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou so much as always for reading Paul, I always value your comments. as you know, am very keen on trees :0)

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I think those last two stanzas said it all for me Di, but then I'm getting old and really don't understand a lot of the other things going on in the world. I suppose in the end there's good and bad everywhere.

But I think it's great if you can let your frustrations out in a fine poem, which is what you've done here.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou Jenny! You are exactly right. My son was asking me that, just now, why do you write poems about this when it won't change anything? Get on with living. But I feel if I don't write it out I am giving up any hope of change, and that isn't living. Perhaps because, like you, I am old enough to remember before all these problems which seem inescapable to him, like remembering a time before fog when it was possible to see how to get where you need to go.

 

Submitted by celticman on

It's not as simple as we lost the propaganda war, but sometimes it feels like it. 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

not sure it is about losing a propaganda war. Is not really a war when one side has all the resources. Due to lobbying being allowed, it has been a propaganda massacre of the truth.

 

Submitted by Nolan on

Alarming. The 0.1 % that would be the carbon dioxide level? Sounds a bit low? Sorry chemistry has never been my strong point.

& Nolan

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Hi Nolan, thankyou for your question!
0.1% is the amount of people who own 11% of all the world's money.
Since the second world war the percentage of tax that very rich people pay, compared to everyone else, has gone down and down.
Because all the money governments have comes from taxes, and tax money is going down as so much money is being kept by this 0.1% of very rich people, governments do not have enough money to do all the things their countries need.
At the same time there are all these films about super heroes defeating villains or threats from outer space. We don't need super heroes, we need billionaires to pay tax so governments can fix the problems!
We are a clever species, we have all the solutions, but they need money and the 0.1% of the world's population has it.
There is a French person, called Thomas Piketty who explains all this much much better. I think his book "Capital" is free, online