{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/political-economy",
 "title": "Political Economy",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 91,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
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  [
   {
    "text": "“I beg you to note,” said a Man to a Goose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As he plucked from her bosom the plumage all loose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“That pillows and cushions of feathers, and beds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As warm as maids’ hearts and as soft as their heads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Increase of life’s comforts the general sum⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which raises the standard of living.” “Come, come,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Goose said, impatiently, “tell me or cease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How that is of any advantage to geese.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What, what!” said the man⁠—“you are very obtuse!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consumption no profit to those who produce?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No good to accrue to Supply from a grand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Progressive expansion, all round, of Demand?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Luxurious habits no benefit bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To those who purvey the luxurious thing?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consider, I pray you, my friend, how the growth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of luxury promises⁠—” “Promises,” quoth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sufferer, “what?⁠—to what course is it pledged",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pay me for being so often defledged?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Accustomed”⁠—this notion the plucker expressed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As he ripped out a handful of down from her breast⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“To one kind of luxury, people soon yearn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For others and ever for others in turn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the man who to-night on your feathers will rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His mutton or bacon or beef to digest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His hunger to-morrow will wish to assuage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With goose and a dressing of onions and sage.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}