The Wealth Creators

    
The Wealth Creators
      
Some think that putting on a tie and suit
Can help them rise above the ones who toil.
They may be right, if up’s away from those,
Whose lives are spent in contact with the soil.

The ones who till and rear and clean and fix
Can hardly wear the penguin garb that marks
A citizen, who keeps his nail-beds clean
And yet has "worth", whose value upwards arcs.

Some fly in jet-planes clear across the globe,
While others rarely leave their “villages”.
We ask, “Whose work adds more to human wealth,
And whose it is, that skims or pillages?”

For engineers and others who protest,
I speak of those, who seem to own the globe.
But all of us might ask, whose interests
We truly serve – and conscience, duly probe.

We celebrate, today, the enterprise
Of “owners”, who took risks to garner riches.
The “wealth-creators”, they are called by us,
And each, to emulate them, daily itches.

And surely, they deserve at least a round
Of winking, for their canny acumen.
But surely too, the ones that they “employ”
Deserve, as afterthought, acknowledgement.

For what is “owning”, what’s “employment”, needs
Some thinking through, some tracing back to roots.
And when we do this, we will find these words
Have much to do with why we bow to suits.

The men and women, who, in truth, create,
Are rarely those who profit from their acts.
And when invention needs production, then
There’s human labor.  These are simply facts.

So where would those we worship be without
Inventors, workers, all who’re nameless, mute?
And who were they, who reared and taught and nursed?
Have I said aught that any would dispute?

Yet those of clan Ayn Rand, they often speak
Of “makers” and of “takers”.  But beware,
For often, they reverse descriptions true.
Such terms, as used, are patently unfair.

These words divide the workers now, because
Some claim, they’re working more and others less.
This may be true or not, but ask, instead,
“Who profits most, from labor and distress?”

The wealth-creators are the ones who work.
Their daily labors make some others rich.
So when they ask you, who the “makers” are
And “takers”, then be clear on who is which.

2104 January 11th, Sat.
Brooklyn, New York 

See also: 

Beware, the Planes! 

http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2014/01/beware-planes.html