I’m trickle down man, pleased to meet you I’m sure,
If you’re suffering from poverty my life is your cure;
The more you give me the better for you,
Sounds crazy, I know, but the more I accrue
At some point in time will level you up
If you wait underneath while I fill up my cup.
When it comes to my bonus don’t threaten to cap,
That’s no way to persuade me to turn on my tap.
Stand still and be patient til my cup overfloweth
By a miracle, you’ll pay back all that you oweth,
And wallow in wealth without lifting a hand,
If you’ll just wait in line for Trickle Down Man.
The higher my taxes the worse for the poor
If I paid nothing in tax I’d end poverty for sure.
I’d eat loads and drink loads, buy more yachts and planes
So the cold and the starving could be freed from their pain.
Some say I’m a zombie returned from below,
But I’ve simply been waiting for my moment to flow;
My cup, you see, has never quite been full,
So the trickle down theory appears to be bull,
Spurring my critics to falsely accuse
Trickle Down Man of being a ruse
To justify tax cuts for the rich one percent
While taking from those who are already spent.
‘Unfair,’ I declare, ‘A lie and a libel,
No zombie am I, I swear on the Bible,
Thanks to Kwarteng and Truss I’m alive and I’m kicking
At the government’s heart, and there I’ll be sticking.
To all of you workers working harder for less
I say ‘I know the way to get out of this mess;
Feed me then bleed me, take all of my flow,
I’m the fountain of plenty, the agent of growth.’
As Trickle Down Man I have some advice,
The politics of envy is not very nice,
‘Parasitical bastard’ is an unchristian label,
Which could lead to fewer crumbs on my table.
I’m not a hard man but I’ve a mean constitution
If I hear any talk of forced redistribution.
Wait for the trickle to happen with goodwill and laughter,
If not in your lifetime then in the hereafter.
About the Poem
This is an angry poem responding to the global economic crisis, experienced most sharply in the UK, arising from the persistence of the discredited trickle down theory of economics whereby the rich are enabled to become richer on the spurious basis that their wealth will eventually cascade down to the rest of us.
About the Author
A lecturer, now retired, from Liverpool, a parent in a civil partnership and with six grandchildren.