The cost beyond the dollar

We frolicked and we played,

as we teetered on the blade,

insulated in our arrogance and greed

We shopped as others starved,

drank as corporations carved

out their profits from the lands of those in need  

All the gadgets that we bought,

and the pleasures that we sought,

all have costs removed from the pittances we pay

Profits must be made

to ensure the shareholders get paid,

and what’s a few dead foreign workers along the way ?

 

Whilst governments war on getting high,

it’s our demand that creates supply,

and no one cares about the contradiction

From peasants forced to coca crops,

to mules and the balloons they drop,

it’s poverty that feeds all our addictions

Defoliants sprayed from the air,

the damage done beyond repair,

and generations pay for others crime

And whilst we laugh and lose ourselves,

the guns and bullets fly off shelves,

and the graves fill up with those lost in their prime

 

The mobile phone within your hand,

the tags that read your favourite brand,

also have prices not found on the docket

From slavery in illegal mines

and evictions forced by dollar signs,

we take what’s theirs for a few cents in the pocket

Children working 16 hours,

while trade deals are signed by those in power,

to further exploit a disposable work force

Our shiny stage of fancy things

needs clenched fists hidden in the wings

to silence further cries for help grown hoarse

 

When we towed the given line

and chose consumption to define

just who we are and what we hope to be

We never tried to understand

the line that’s been drawn in the sand

that separates the shackled from the free

So caught up with petty choices

to notice those long lacking voices,

to understand the cycle we create

The spoilt children of the West,

cursing others to be blessed,

responsibility absolved to fate