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# On Doing Good in America
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/on-doing-good-in-america/
- Published: 2020-05-13T13:53:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-21T04:44:27.000Z
- Description: “How does one with no boots pull himself up by his bootstraps?” “Why teach someone to fish then deny them access to the lake?”
- Author: Andy
- Tags: America on the Brink, poetry, Politics, America, protest, #Migrated-1784090317409, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 04:39

“*If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake*.”- [Bill Gates](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jrose/2019/01/29/money-quotes-richest-people-in-the-world/?ref=andyposner.org#5b9b67945755) We admire the philanthropist for "giving back" and ignore what they first had to take away. It is a sin to need help and a blessing to offer it; there is profit in not asking too many questions:

“*How does one with no boots* *pull himself up by his bootstraps?*”

“*Why teach someone to fish* *then deny them access to the lake?*” We are only 4.25% of global population, and yet we own [28% of Covid-19 fatalities](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?ref=andyposner.org#countries). But don’t worry, our billionaires, dying to [restart their factories](https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/12/21255812/elon-musk-tesla-factory-coronavirus-reopening?ref=andyposner.org), [donate to food banks](https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/2/21206205/jeff-bezos-100-million-charity-food-banks-feeding-america?ref=andyposner.org) so the underpaid don’t starve. But we do not weep for the hungry—this is America! We are each one sixty-hour workweek away from striking it rich. We refuse to quarantine our dreams; If 200,000 perish, that’s the price of freedom. Someday we’ll erect an immaculate monument to those who died for the good of the economy.