Explore "Political Economy" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"I beg you to note," said a Man to a Goose, / As he plucked from her bosom the plumage all loose, / "That pillows and cushions of feathers and beds / As warm as maids' hearts and as soft as their heads, / Increase of life's comforts the general sum -- / Which raises the standard of living." "Come, come," / The Goose said, impatiently, "tell me or cease, / How that is of any advantage to geese." / "What, what!" said the man -- "you are very obtuse! / Consumption no profit to those who produce? / No good to accrue to Supply from a grand / Progressive expansion, all round, of Demand? / Luxurious habits no benefit bring / To those who purvey the luxurious thing? / Consider, I pray you, my friend, how the growth / Of luxury promises -- " "Promises," quoth / The sufferer, "what? -- to what course is it pledged / To pay me for being so often defledged?"
"Accustomed" -- this notion the plucker expressed / As he ripped out a handful of down from her breast -- / "To one kind of luxury, people soon yearn / For others and ever for others in turn; / And the man who to-night on your feathers will rest, / His mutton or bacon or beef to digest, / His hunger to-morrow will wish to assuage / By dining on goose with a dressing of sage."