Principles of Political Economy

July 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A set of proverbs on the relationship between politics and economics:

Principles of Political Economy

1. Political and economic activity are motivated primarily by perceived self-interest.

2. Immediate self-interest is more powerful than deferred self-interest unless one believes that the benefits of deferred self-interest will be equitably distributed.

3. Therefore just laws, strictly and equitably applied by a legitimate authority, are required if deferred self-interest is generally to prevail.

4. Productive activity in pursuit of deferred self-interest is the source of wealth.

5. The following conditions stimulate such productive activity: just laws equitably applied; individual rights and freedoms; security of property and person; political and economic stability; education; equitable distribution of opportunity; equitable distribution of wealth; developed infrastructure for production, transportation, and communication; available credit; a stable currency.

6. Neither a pure market economy nor a State-controlled economy is conducive to the development and maintenance of these conditions.

7. The proper balance of State intervention and market control is measured economically but determined politically.

8. While temporary restraints on trade may be beneficial, in general the freer the movement of goods, services, and investment, the greater the stimulation of productive activity, and therefore the greater the wealth.

9. The productive activity of each contributes to the wealth of all. This is as true of nations within the world economy as it is of individuals within a national economy.

10. The globalization of political and economic activity will increase global wealth only to the extent that the conditions listed in (5) above prevail globally.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed these proverbs, please like, comment on, or share them so that they might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see them on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/poleco.html. For more poems and proverbs about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat

7/5: Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

7/6: Hubris Is a Quality of People

7/7: The Cancer That Killed You Was Part of You Gone Quite Insane

7/8: Principles of Political Economy

The Cancer That Killed You Was Part of You Gone Quite Insane

July 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A poem about the political causes of cancer:

The cancer that killed you was part of you gone quite insane:

The good run amok; death from life bursting awry,

Like a poor paranoid on a bell tower sniping away,

Killing the order that gives all the colony life.

Nature, of course, has madness built into its music,

Disturbing its peace with the agony all artists crave.

Perhaps that's what killed you: the one-in-so-many malfunctions

That chaos requires to shatter the oneness of light.

But chaos is aided in our time by greed in abundance:

Greed like a cancer destroying our colony Earth;

Greed that we eat, drink, and breathe, in our dreams, in our language;

Greed in the nuclei of our dwindling faiths.

What killed you, my loved one, is blended in recycled plastic

Spewing its toxins in micrograms into the sky.

Your life was a goat on the altar of modern convenience,

Bearing the sins of us all towards that merciless god.

We live in a world whose rulers are partners with death;

For whom cancer must be a number that balances out.

You were just perhaps the unlucky percent to be traded

For progress towards some CEO's end-of-year bottom line.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thecan.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat

7/5: Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

7/6: Hubris Is a Quality of People

7/7: The Cancer That Killed You Was Part of You Gone Quite Insane

Hubris Is a Quality of People

July 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A political poem warning of rulers afflicted by hubris, or excessive pride:

Hubris is a quality of people

Under the influence of being right.

Beware of power wielded in a cause

Restrained by nothing more than higher laws,

Intent on doing good through measured might.

So do righteous rulers' reigns turn lethal.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hubris.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat

7/5: Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

7/6: Hubris Is a Quality of People

Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

July 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which was celebrated yesterday, July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A political poem about fear and anger stoked for political purposes:

Politics brings out the worst in us.

One is more vile the more there is at stake.

Leveraging a little animus,

It turns mere opposition into hate.

The lava bubbling underneath each heart,

Inhibited by guilt or love or fear,

Comes bursting forth, by scribes with subtle art

Stoked vigorously as new elections near.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politi.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat

7/5: Politics Brings Out the Worst in Us

Then, There Was No Right to Eat

July 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated today, July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about applying Constitutional principles to modern realities:

Then, there was no right to eat, nor was health

A right, nor freedom for a slave. Native

Peoples were simply dispossessed, and wealth

Accrued to men only. The fierce and furtive

Cries for love, gay or straight, were smothered.

Non-human animals had no rights, nor children

Left to drunken fathers or brutal mothers.

Oh, yes, that government governed least, but no one

Could foresee the brood of rights sprung

From words that rang out across the western world

That summer day, rights now nearly won,

That long lay fearful in predawn silence curled.

The founders were wise, but to be true to them,

We must apply their words to now, not then.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thenth.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat

Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

July 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which will be celebrated tomorrow, July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A political poem about the next recession or depression:

Now, at last, the time of reckoning.

It had to come. You knew that, didn't you?

After all, nothing can't be something

Even when its stock is on the rise.

Now the panic after the delusion,

The great big yawning pit within the heart.

One sees disaster happening and wonders,

Regrets, resolves, recriminates, sits tight.

O Lord, what will happen now? The hunger,

People on the streets and on the move.

The last depression blossomed into Hitler.

What flowers will this rain of terror bring?

One thing now we know for sure -- again:

That greed unfettered is a luxury car

Without a steering wheel, a mighty engine

That moves us forward into death and pain.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/nowatl.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

July 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated on July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about the ubiquity of corruption in government:

In politics corruption is the norm,

Nor can one wield much power without its aid.

Democracy demands that minds be swayed,

Eviscerating efforts at reform.

Perhaps in tyrannies corruption's worse,

Existing without recourse or restraint.

Not even when the ruler is a saint,

Devout and good, can one stamp out this curse.

Each country has some white knights still unstained,

Nor can idealists long remain in power.

Corruption simply waits until their hour

Erodes once their energy has waned.

Depending on its character and press,

A nation might be more corrupt or less,

Yet underneath the law the blight remains.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/inpoli.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm