Progress and Poverty

All week I thought I was making so much progress--sold a couple of books, got all my bills paid and ordered an area rug for the living room, and faced the resulting semi-poverty bravely. Then yesterday I decided it was too cold for Mo to have to go outside, so I fixed him a privy in the bathroom--and in the process of all this activity, the rooms look like a tornado came in the front door and got caught somewhere in the center of the house. Oh, well, I've coped before, and no doubt I'll cope again.

Mo has got so old, all he wants to do is lie in my lap and sleep. Yesterday, the last time he went outside, he didn't come in right away. I called and called, and finally found him camped out in the basement. He had to be coaxed up the stairs, one step at a time. If I should find him asleep and not breathing, what will I do?

Thanks to economist Henry George for the title of this post. He wrote a great book, which I guess has done a lot of good in this country. Still, I think it takes a lot more now to live close to the poverty line than it did in 1867 when the book came out.