Seventy Seventy-Six
1776
A new world begins,
our world,
malls, money, credit cards, debit cards,
forget barter,
although maybe occasionally I like to barter,
so do you.
Three names changed the world,
Adam Smith, James Watt, USA.
a revolutionary threesome.
Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” reforms thought,
the invisible hand goes to work,
factories instead of feudal estates,
and peasants wander the land,
sturdy beggars everywhere.
The division of labour in a pin factory is so smart,
why not go that route if you can get rich?
Capital investment equals capitalism,
who has capital?
nevermind, we’ll all have it soon,
Smith told us how to make it,
he called it the natural progress of opulence,
isn’t that nice?
Mainly, Smith wanted us to have economic freedom,
some people don’t care for it,
I do,
I like Smith’s magical world.
Marx hated capitalism,
nevermind, he didn’t have to bother with capital,
his friends and family took very good care of him,
some people think Marx knows capitalism for all time,
nuts!
all he knew was baby capitalism,
he was brainy, so brainy, but not brainy enough for all time.
A hundred and fifty years ago I liked Marx’s world,
I don’t like Marxists’ world today, why would I?
why does anyone?
it’s a mystery!
1776
A Scottish inventor that freed up food,
horses, oxen, people need to eat,
steam engines don’t,
and that’s the revolution that James Watt wrought.
O how the human numbers began to climb,
six and a half billion initiated then,
easing toil,
eating and eating and eating,
babies surviving,
old men effective,
old women productive,
famine averted lots of times and places.
Inanimate power,
that’s the ticket,
too bad it melted the arctic,
hurried hurricanes,
poor polar bears,
carbon dioxide-ing us all nowadays.
1776 patent for James Watt’s amazing machine made Smith’s division of labour huge,
the industrial revolution premiered then,
mass produced products cheapen,
the spark from then flamed our fire,
the Scottish revolution went far,
but not everywhere.
1776
Political freedom joined to economic freedom,
‘s’wonderful!
The United States of America, a fresh experiment,
with a constitution of good intent, as in:
secure the blessings of liberty “to ourselves and our posterity”
establish justice
promote the general welfare
insure domestic tranquility
provide for the common defense
Self-evident truths are declared:
all men are created equal,
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights,
among which Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
s’marvelous
Took a couple of hundred years to spread to all men,
meaning women and black men,
and brown men,
still incomplete,
a work in progress
But self-evident truths are the ticket,
I like such self-evident truths,
You can’t escape such self-evident truths,
You can’t deny the self-evident
Good on me that I inherited that world
the threesome’s revolution,
but,
hindsight is so instructive,
say, Watt and Smith had not been Scots,
from the house of coal
coal the start of fossil fueling,
so convenient, so available.
Say, the industrial revolution was set in motion in a desert,
where sun burns into the mind,
solar power, that’s the ticket,
or maybe something yet unthought.
But,
I’m looking for a new threesome,
although I’ll take a twosome,
even a onesome,
time for another revolutionary,
wonder who she is?
A new world begins,
our world,
malls, money, credit cards, debit cards,
forget barter,
although maybe occasionally I like to barter,
so do you.
Three names changed the world,
Adam Smith, James Watt, USA.
a revolutionary threesome.
Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” reforms thought,
the invisible hand goes to work,
factories instead of feudal estates,
and peasants wander the land,
sturdy beggars everywhere.
The division of labour in a pin factory is so smart,
why not go that route if you can get rich?
Capital investment equals capitalism,
who has capital?
nevermind, we’ll all have it soon,
Smith told us how to make it,
he called it the natural progress of opulence,
isn’t that nice?
Mainly, Smith wanted us to have economic freedom,
some people don’t care for it,
I do,
I like Smith’s magical world.
Marx hated capitalism,
nevermind, he didn’t have to bother with capital,
his friends and family took very good care of him,
some people think Marx knows capitalism for all time,
nuts!
all he knew was baby capitalism,
he was brainy, so brainy, but not brainy enough for all time.
A hundred and fifty years ago I liked Marx’s world,
I don’t like Marxists’ world today, why would I?
why does anyone?
it’s a mystery!
1776
A Scottish inventor that freed up food,
horses, oxen, people need to eat,
steam engines don’t,
and that’s the revolution that James Watt wrought.
O how the human numbers began to climb,
six and a half billion initiated then,
easing toil,
eating and eating and eating,
babies surviving,
old men effective,
old women productive,
famine averted lots of times and places.
Inanimate power,
that’s the ticket,
too bad it melted the arctic,
hurried hurricanes,
poor polar bears,
carbon dioxide-ing us all nowadays.
1776 patent for James Watt’s amazing machine made Smith’s division of labour huge,
the industrial revolution premiered then,
mass produced products cheapen,
the spark from then flamed our fire,
the Scottish revolution went far,
but not everywhere.
1776
Political freedom joined to economic freedom,
‘s’wonderful!
The United States of America, a fresh experiment,
with a constitution of good intent, as in:
secure the blessings of liberty “to ourselves and our posterity”
establish justice
promote the general welfare
insure domestic tranquility
provide for the common defense
Self-evident truths are declared:
all men are created equal,
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights,
among which Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
s’marvelous
Took a couple of hundred years to spread to all men,
meaning women and black men,
and brown men,
still incomplete,
a work in progress
But self-evident truths are the ticket,
I like such self-evident truths,
You can’t escape such self-evident truths,
You can’t deny the self-evident
Good on me that I inherited that world
the threesome’s revolution,
but,
hindsight is so instructive,
say, Watt and Smith had not been Scots,
from the house of coal
coal the start of fossil fueling,
so convenient, so available.
Say, the industrial revolution was set in motion in a desert,
where sun burns into the mind,
solar power, that’s the ticket,
or maybe something yet unthought.
But,
I’m looking for a new threesome,
although I’ll take a twosome,
even a onesome,
time for another revolutionary,
wonder who she is?
posted by Professor Sal at 7:26 PM
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