The Dream

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses And we'll give you a workforce you can mold A penny for your thoughts but a dollar for your silence In the land where freedom's bought and sold You keep looking at the hit parade While behind closed doors where deals are made There's a bunch of folks trying to get a hand into your pocket Being poor is still a mortal sin And sticks and stems can get you 5 to 10 But you rarely ever see a white collar on the docket It's the way it is, like it or not And all you have is all you got 'Cause everything is free when it's already been bought So you can call it American but just don't call it a dream The way they buy up your values and then sell you a scheme And I can tell you that liberty is such a fragile thing But if you can afford it then let freedom ring A penny saved is still a penny earned But when averaged with the gross return Well you're still gonna find that your ledger's in the red But that don't matter if you're well-to-do The numbers always seem to work for you And you'll always turn a profit off the workers that you bled Is it drive or is it greed? What could sate your primal need? Does it really matter? Just don't bite the hand that feeds So you can call it American but just don't call it a dream The way they buy up your values and then sell you a scheme They'll paint it red, white, and blue, give it a brand new sheen And it may look like it cares for you but it's still a machine When every minimum is mandatory And every news story reads more like an allegory It's just a sign of the times to show how far we fell So as we slowly draw our battle lines I'm drawing parallels to Roman times So strap in 'cause like Slim Pickens we'll ride it to hell So you can call it American but just don't call it a dream The way they buy up your values and then sell you a scheme Forget the land of the brave and the home of the free If I'm dying for something I'm fucking dying for me I'm in it for me!