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Loaves and Fishes
by Jim Benz"Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie,
that one party can gain only at the expense of another."
--Milton Friedman
A hundred people, a hundred
loaves, a hundred fish
to share
First Distribution: 59 loaves
and 59 fish
allotted for 10
to share
Second Distribution: 31 loaves
and 31 fish
allotted for 30
to share
Third Distribution: 10 loaves
and 10 fish
allotted for 50
to share
Last Distribution: a pile
of crumbs, a platter
of bones allotted
["There's no such thing as a free lunch" -- Milton Friedman]
01/29/2010 Author's Note: In an economy that involves 100 people, this doesn't happen. In an economy that involves 6 billion, it does. Which is to say, the "pie" might not be "fixed", but it certainly is broken.
Posted on 01/29/2010
Copyright © 2026 Jim Benz
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Therese Elaine on 01/29/10 at 07:31 PM I absolutely love the economic correlation here...and I'm rather impressed with the way you broke it down...the last line of course being the kicker of all kickers. Well done! |
| Posted by Julie Adams on 01/29/10 at 09:05 PM Such an interesting piece...esp in the face of what Haiti is going thru...I really appreciate math in a poem, probably because it is so alien to me, lol...but this is so well crafted, despite being straightforward, ur delivery is impeccable and works the impact so well...kudos to u, jewels |
| Posted by Charlie Morgan on 01/29/10 at 11:37 PM ...jim, heavy yet full of passion and compassion; well-stated and thought-out. gut-punching. |
| Posted by Anne Boulender on 01/30/10 at 01:01 AM governments are broken, the pie isn't broken until the government or a socialist/communist/marxist tries to take it away from the person that baked it. the level of corruption/leftist dogma that controls a government is going to determine how little pie can be had by each person. so ask yourself if you want to help take the pie away from people who've worked very hard to bake it so you can give it to the people who decide how to dole it out or to the people who want someone else to bake it for them. i'm not sure which point of view you are writing this poem from, however i am guessing it is not really from a milton friedman mindset, which ironically is the very mindset which allows countries like the USA to give so much to countries like Haiti, though much of what we give to Haiti will be embezzled and mismanaged by a very non friedman approach. |
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