BEASTLY TALES

THE EXTORTIONERS

We can look near, we can look far,
Someone will have a far better car.
We can look high and we can look low,
A bigger house has that so-and-so.
Whether we earn a healthy stipend,
Others will earn more in the end.
It’s better to be happy with what we’ve got.
Be content that what we have is our lot.
Should we search for only material things,
We’ll never be content with what life brings.
That’s not to say that a bit of stray cash,
Wouldn’t be handy, under our mattress, to stash.

Banks, of course, are a very poor illustration,
Greedy beyond belief, they reap cash from the nation.
In the Country Down Under,
They daily pillage and plunder,
And it’s probably not too much askew,
Within the country that belongs to you.
For example banks offer interest rate reductions,
Over a period of years as tricky seductions,
To get you to transfer debts to their bank.
After the conclusion of low interest blank,
Interest rates shoot up to USURIOUS levels,
Yes, and you’re locked in, they’re cunning devils.

Here’s something else for which we give no thanks,
Another favourite, but disturbing, trait of the banks,
After the Reserve Bank raises their rate,
Is to hit mortgages on that very date.
But should the Reserve Bank lower their percent,
Mortgagees generally receive not one cent.
So Mortgagees, who have greater need,
Get no relief from the Banker’s greed.

A banker who committed a white collar crime,
(And who has paid his debt, did his time),
Was a gent called Marvin, who, to give him his due,
Stole money from a bank which, right on cue,
Epostulated with seething outrage,
That an employee could really engage,
In such a dastardly deed, in this day and age,
But Marvin was of a kind disposition,
And supported the poor with a paid physician,
Yes, this was an action full of good,
That puts us in mind of Robin Hood,
Who reputedly stole just from the rich,
And gave to the poor, (who didn’t bitch).

Now, is it right that we excoriate,
About devious banking practices, with no abate?
Well, I would positively suggest to you,
To each concern give it, it’s due.
An organisation that pursues AVARICE,
Should be held accountable for this!
Banks are generally quite rapacious,
Grasping, avaricious, extortionate, predacious.
But apart from unethical, devious behaviour,
Is there any good trait that could be a saviour?
Full of the milk of human kindness?
Or just an ongoing pursuit of greed quite mindless!