Dar Williams: Bought and sold

Well we're heading for a past that you leave not defend Where the downtowns hold the sadness of you can't go back again It's there you'll find the rust and debtors Motel signs with missing letters Cause there's a monster on the outskirts Says it knows what your town needs Then it eats it up like nothing and it won't spit out the seeds And we can be the super shoppers We can say we're really smart We can say our town is doing fine without a beating heart We can even say the money saved is all our own It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold And we're heading for a nasty business, keeps our country growing Where the weapons that we're selling are the only seeds we're sowing You get to blow the fruits of all your labors Sell F-16's to all the neighbors And we know that it's for money And that's how the west gets bargained You the know the last time this happened Even Vietnam got jargoned And you can say they're out to hunt you You can say they're out to fish you You can join a gang of restless boys Or start your own militia You can even say your violence is all your own It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold Well I look up to the people who are less bought than I You can show them what you're selling And they'll only ask you why And their paychecks don't have lots of zeros They're my friends and they're my heroes And the TV sets are angry 'cause they just can't make 'em pay But I like the way these people read the signs and walk away And we can call ourselves the makers And the keepers of the times We can spend our sand dollars And sand nickels and sand dimes We can even say prosperity is all our own It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold We can even say our loneliness is all our own It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold