Self-Interest vs. the Green-eyed Demon

Benign Self-Interest (not 'Good', good, greed,

Run free, run amok) is now just what we need.

But that green-eyed demon, sowing discord and hate,

Is alive and well, as we re-learned with Enron, and in '08.

The mess that the world is still in won't be fixed

Until responsibility is restored, not knowingly nixed.



Which is what makes what's happening with the fisc,

So disheartening, not surprising, but a sad, sad risk.

Theory and ideology have cut taxes on the rich,

Who pay the lowest taxes in reality; not to bitch,

But why shift the burden to a dwindling middle class?



When billionaires give millions to have bills pass,

So that they won't pay those same millions in...

Wait, (forehead slap) that's Self-Interest, not sin!

Just without duty, generous, benign, the foresight to see

That they draw from the same well in which they pee.