“The Way to Wealth”:  Twenty-First Century Edition

 

From the pen

of Ben

(Franklin, that is)

with the assistance of Poor Richard

“a Word to the Wise is enough”

(“I have sometimes quoted myself with great gravity”):

 

Drive thy Employees,

let not them drive thee

We have no Gains

without their Pains

Our To-day is worth their To-morrows

 

“Industry need not wish”

as long as there be such a thing as advertising,

thus it is

“The artificial Wants of Mankind thus become

more numerous than the natural”

and,

as a just result,

“God gives all Things to Industry”

 

“The [spying] Eye of a Master

will do more Work than both [your] Hands”;

even so

“be ashamed that a good Master should catch you idle”

 

“Be industrious and free;

be frugal and free”

“when you run into debt

You give to another

Power over your Liberty”

“rather go to Bed supperless than rise in Debt”

“you will no longer complain of bad times,

or

the Difficulty of paying Taxes”

 

They who won’t be so counselled,

can’t be helped

 

Michael Ceraolo is a 55-year old firefighter/paramedic/poet who has had one full-length book (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press) and a few shorter-length books published, plus numerous magazine publications. This poem is  from his Twenty-First Century Editions, re-writings of various political, religious, and literary works for the twenty-first century.