Increasing pressure is being brought to bear on Australia's seven Governments to practise more economics in order to impose less taxation; but until that pressure grows stronger there seems small hope of any adequate action.
If I'd the right (said old George Jones)
To tax a country till it groans,
An' take an' levy tribute when I shouldn't;
You think that I'd be toilin' here,
Pinchin' an' savin' year on year?
Well, p'raps I would; an' p'raps again I wouldn't.
For human nature's awful weak,
And men were ever prone to seek
The easy way; an' it ain't so surprisin'
That men, or Gover'ments, should dash
Along the easy path to cash
Before the hard road to economisin'.
There's few will take the uphill road
Unless there be the whip an' goad
Of need, of stern necessity to twist 'em.
But where the downhill track runs straight
All are inclined to gravitate.
An' there's the rub with all our social system.
If I'd the pow'r (said old George Jones)
To tax, an' live on easy loans,
Well, p'raps I would be stern an' labor lovin',
And p'raps I might be strong an' brave
An' eager all the time to save,
But not, I think, till someone done some shovin'.
First published in The Herald, 17 June 1933
Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
