New Song: "Why?" (Patreon)

This is based on a simple premise: After a certain point, you don't NEED any more money. But the richest of us keep trying to GET more and more and more, usually off the backs and out of the threadbare wallets of the poor. And, if you ask them, the reason is something like, "to get more money, of course".

There isn't an endgame.

There isn't a plan. 

There isn't even an ulterior motive.

They're all shooting for the high score in a game that's meaningless, except to the people they're hurting.

Which is almost everyone on the planet.

Cutting taxes for the point one percent,Makin money offa being in government,Helping your donors avoid any profit lost.You hate how regulations chafe,But they’re there to keep your damn workers safe,Isn’t that enough of a reason to pay the cost?

Time was when we were all paid a living wage,A man could get through school right to old ageAnd not have to worry ‘bout losing his dignityBut contracts were broken, and pensions were stolen,Unions were busted, and now they’re out trollin’For the Medicare and the Social Security.

(chorus)You want all the power, you want all the money,So much it ain’t even funny,You’ll leave your people and planet high and dry,Children homeless with an empty belly,The landscape scorched and the water smelly,And still you won’t be able to tell me why.

It used to be companies made a profitAnd their employees could all live off it,Because they planned for the long term, not the short.The idea of slow and steady growthMeant it helped employers and workers bothBut now it means your shareholders take you to court.

You’re trying so hard to get so damn muchYou’ve forgotten money doesn’t exist as such,It’s an arbitrary medium of exchange.It keeps us from bartering wolf pelts or grain,It’s less vulnerable to bandits and rain,And it’s not a goal by itself, unless you’re strange.

(chorus)Making more tax breaks for the wealthyRather than makin’ your people healthyUndermining your neighborhoods on the slyKeeping your media savants blabbin’ ‘Bout everything but the cash you’re grabbinAnd still you won’t be able to tell me why.

(bridge) Why is it so damn difficult for you to put into wordsWhere all this profit’s finally supposed to go?The movers and shakers keep movin’ and shakin’And takin’ and takin’ and takin’ and takin’But what are you gonna do with it -- do you even know?

You can buy everything in the whole damn store,So why d’you need more and more and more?Are you preparing for an imminent alien attack?Are you gonna become a planetary landscaperWhen you get enough presidential portraits on paper,Or are you just a money-monomaniac?

So let’s get down to the nitty and the gritty,You want to control every state, every city,Because you’re greedy and like pushin’ people around.You can’t think of a reason that’s any deeper,For not letting people buy stuff that’s cheaper,Except that YOUR profit is nowhere to be found.

(chorus)Your careers are based on nothing moreThan trying to get the frickin’ high scoreIn a game you’re still gonna lose on the day you die.You subsidize theft and war and treason,And still can’t give anyone a good reasonDo you even know yourself exactly why?

At least have the guts to finally admitYou don’t care if the whole world turns to shit,As long as you make money off it, ‘cause otherwise WHY?