Dr. Seuss Economics: “I do not like this Uncle Sam”

I normally do not circulate “viral email” but these rebellious ditties remind me of what circulated in the run up to the 1938 election—an election that walloped the New Deal upside the head (although existing programs remained in place). Source: Origin unknown.

Following this Dr. Seuss post is some anti-New Deal humor. Critics of the New Deal normally referenced Alice in Wonderland Economics when talking about the New Deal. Today it is Dr. Seuss Economics.

Enjoy!

2010:

I do not like this Uncle Sam, I do not like his health care scam.

I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their secret deals.

I do not like this speaker, Nan ,

I do not like this ‘YES WE CAN’.

I do not like this spending spree,

I’m smart, I know that nothing’s free,

I do not like your smug replies, when I complain about your lies.

I do not like this kind of hope.

I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!

1930s:

“‘Twas the night before Christmas

When all through the land,

The ballots were ready, the polls fully manned

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Because good St. Franklin soon would be there.

The people were snuggled all warm in their beds

With visions of alphabet plums in their heads;

And voters were dreaming of how, the next day,

They’d march to the polls for old PWA

When the jingle of sleigh bells was heard from afar

And swift through the night roared a big White House car

From out of the packages, piled high to see

Shone the bright, smiling face of the good Saint F.D.

Each bulging package a dollar sign wore

And down every chimney he poured them, galore....

And they heard him exclaim, as he flew out of sight;

‘Merry Christmas to all–and be sure you vote right!”

***

“Roosevelt is my shepherd; I am in want

He maketh me to lie down on park benches;

He leadeth me beside the still factories.

He disturbeth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of destruction for his Party’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of recession,

I anticipate no recovery

For he is with me;

His promises and pipe dreams they no longer fool me.

He preparest a reduction in my salary in the presence of my creditors:

He anointeth my small income with taxes;

Surely unemployment and poverty shall follow me all the days of the New Deal

And I will dwell in a mortgaged house forever.”

Source: George Wolfskill and John A. Hudson, All But the People: Franklin D. Roosevelt and His Critics, 1933-1939 (1969)