🤔 Questions from a worker who reads, 2024 edition

In which a Zoomer takes a shot at reimagining Bertolt Brecht's 1935 poem.

writing politics poetry

Who built the Burj Khalifa, standing high above gleaming Dubai?
Did the Emirati royals smelt the steel?
Would they ever be forced to toil in the desert heat?

In New York, tourists mingle on Wall Street.
Whose money flows inside those walls?

Did those who pick tomatoes enjoy five-star feasts in Miami?
Where, the evening that Bezos' new house was finished, did the laborers go?

Silicon Valley is well known for building free products.
How do they pay for them?

Over whom did Thatcher and Reagan triumph?
Did America and Britain, in all their praise, have prosperity for everyone?

Even on the night that Lehman Brothers failed,
the free-market capitalists cried out for help.

The Soviet Union collapsed.
Who else benefited?

Every week a new cryptocurrency scam.
Who gets ensnared?

Russia invaded Ukraine—did McDonald's ever keep the peace?
China eyes Taiwan—could Apple keep the peace?

Sam Altman celebrates a new AI feat.
Was he training the models?

Every year a great person.
Who cemented their legacy?

So many reports.

So many questions.