Compound Interests

Take a tiny tendency
To cheat a little, just
To fudge occasionally,

The kind of small-percentage
Deceit people will deploy
During family board games,

Haggling, self-reporting, or
In Behavioral Econ
Lab experiments. Not grift,

Not forethought, not cynical,
Not always fully conscious,
Frequently self-deceiving.

Multiply that by millions,
Billions. Bear in mind how small
Percentages of large piles

Are equivalent to whole
Pools of less well-resourced lives,
How this goes on all the time.

There may be evil people,
But there’s no need for evil
People to destroy people.