Poems for the New Plantation

The Grand Design

What are our rulers up to?

What is their ultimate goal,

That they'd freely get rid of our melting pot

And give us a salad bowl?

They don't want us strong and united,

The land of the brave and the free;

They want us in thrall to our global masters,

A polyglot peasantry.

Mexico North

Here is the plan linguistic:

A modern-day Tower of Babel.

It goes with the plan economic:

Elite using downtrodden rabble.

Bargaining Power

How great must our efficiency be

Before we can ever begin to see

The fruit of this high productivity?

It seems that upon the latest inspection,

(Please help me here if you have a correction)

We're headed in exactly the wrong direction.

They promised us growing prosperity,

Instead we get income disparity

When labor's a global commodity.

The outcome is natural according to some,

The problem, they say, is our workers are dumb.

One can't help hoping their time will come.

It's clear to us now we've been deceived,

We made a mistake when we believed

The "expert" advice that we received.

The doctrine of totally unfettered trade

Is just an ivory tower charade

To have us compete with the underpaid.

So well-trained workers in the West

Can do their very level best

And wage rates still will be depressed.

Some still make out, you wonder why

Their recompense remains so high:

See how they limit their supply.

Those who really know the score

Will tell you that often less is more,

What counts is what you can sell it for.

David Martin

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