Conversation With A Young Person Poem by David Welch

I saw a young man shouting in the street,
he couldn't have been much more than twenty,
and for some reason felt ever so mad
about his country, this land of plenty.

He seemed to be so very passionate,
so I went over and readied my phone,
asked, "Can I talk with you about your cause?
I think my listeners would like the know."

Now the young fellow seemed wary at first,
and I do not blame him for that these days,
I said, "When you're done we can get diner,
talk some place quiet, and off course I'll pay."

The fellow seemed to be all right with this,
went back to protest with all of his strength,
later we went to a diner down the road,
and took out seats in a booth, on a bench.

I said then, "Tell me, what is it you want? "
He spoke, "I want the rich to pay their fair share."
I said, "They pay half of all the taxes."
He said, "They should pay more, if they really care."

I thought and said, "Let us do some math here,
if you taxed all the right one hundred percent,
took all the money they had to their name,
it would pay for just eight months of government.

"Then, after that, there would be no rich left,
and consequences would be greater than that,
since rich folk get that way from their business,
with those, goodbye jobs, that would be bad.

"The working class folk you claim to support,
they could not earn money, could not survive.
You have to see that it's all connected,
if one ‘class' goes down, all the others die."

I hoped he would stop and think for a bit,
but he said, "They stole their wealth from us, it's sick.
Don't you see we're building a better world,
one not obsessed with things economic.

"A world that isn't so base and commercial,
where people get paid according to need."
I nodded despite his naivete,
spoke calmly, "I do not think that you see…

"All civilization is economic,
trade is the reason all of this is here.
Towns exist to simplify access to goods,
and centralize jobs, make sure they are near.

"All this was built by men seeking profit,
and doing so benefited all the people.
When it comes to ‘need' I don't think you have
considered all the implications in full.

"You can't ever pay all folks the same waves,
because every job has not the same strain,
you can't pay a doctor like a bus boy,
even thinking about that is insane.

"Think of all the schooling doctors must have,
the responsibility of their shoulders,
how often they're sued if something goes wrong,
would they do it if the pay wasn't richer?

"Engineers, surgeons…all the high stress jobs,
would anybody do that for twenty thousand?
They won't, and society needs those people,
how would you even survive without them? "

I again hoped he would think about this,
instead the young man's face just grew more red,
He said, "Fascist! I knew this was a mistake! "
Then fact away from the table he sped.

At first I wondered why God gave such passion
to people who were so incredibly dumb,
then sighed and was grateful I had this chance
to reach out and speak at least with this one.

Since a man can't unhear something he's told,
and the truth will plant unkillable seeds,
when that kids grows, and questions this nonsense,
the voice that he will be hearing is me.