It's the Economy, Stupid

歌詞

It's the economy, stupid A victory sign A mantra An explanation A reminder A warning An omen An onus A threat It's the economy, stupid Farmers' wives bring eggs Chickens Whole milk Fresh butter To the local market To the store Come in with groceries And leave with groceries and money Small farmers raise crops For local markets Up at dawn Home at dusk More in fallow Than under the plow Dark loam Rich with earthworms Defying erosion Anchoring forest borders Home for Game Shelter Shade Now virginity is no longer fashionable Even in our forests We will harvest another crop Of walnut Cherry, oak If we only live Another hundred years. Man was the last piece Of creation And has been playing catch up Ever since. Farming is a balance Of muscle Daylight And conservation Machinery Becomes the muscle now Allowing us to work Into the night. We plant our debts Fencerow to fencerow Swallowing Every bitter dram Of expert advice Until ...drunk with dreams of fortune equity leverage growth... We grow What we cannot use Purchase What we used to raise Spend What we used to save Sell What we used to treasure Mock What we used to revere Hate What we used to love It's the economy, stupid Understand... I am not a nostalgist I am a most pragmatic man I look at what naturally occurs In the living world... And see diversity Not specialization. I look at Hometown banks Restaurants Hardware stores Where your name Is your credit And decisions are rendered By people who know you Where you are more than The five banks And the four airlines And the three newspaper chains And the two big box stores And the one-and-a-half political parties And the one retort: It's the economy stupid And the standards That demand that Every teacher teaches Every student Exactly the same thing And, like these students I have to ask "why?" Why? It's the economy, stupid Now those educated Appraised students Ride their buses From their consolidated schools Back to their small towns and farms And cannot wait To drive their cars away On that highway of diamonds Into the consolidated cities Where they look back In shame And wonder Stranded Between what they know And what they've been sold It's the economy, stupid The economy that looks For the maximum return For the quick turnaround For the short term gain For the unearned income For the Big Lotto It's the economy, stupid And the economy Is impatient It has a short attention span It is easily bored It is hungry It is late for its next appointment It puts you on hold It does not return your call It's the economy, stupid The economy Has you working two jobs It is mandatory overtime It is expensive sneakers Made by sweating children It is cheap food Picked by landless hands It is good paying jobs Disappearing from American towns And reappearing Nowhere It is your closed up main street And it is your boarded up mill And it is your condo-minimized factory And it is your cookie cutter mall And it is not accountable It is not America It's the economy, stupid The economy now has no borders Or horizons Or faces Or hands The economy has only one rule: More. And the economy lies. The economy tells us it is about Freedom. The economy is about Dependence. Not on land Or animals Or weather Or neighbors But On machinery And fuel And credit. Most farmers Have borrowed their way Right out of farming. And No government loan No government program Will change That cycle. Because the government Is powerless now, see... It's the economy, stupid And the government is the economy's Biggest cheerleader. It plays by the same rules: The quick fix The stronger army The bigger bomb The dependence on machinery To do work That can only effectively be done By humans. It consolidates When diversity is required. It's about economy It's about small towns with Banks And baseball teams A general store Churches Family cemeteries A schoolhouse A lumberyard A radio station A newspaper A roadhouse A funeral home A filling station Open space Open opportunity Open eyes Open hearts Choice Recourse Response Responsibility It's about economy