How Much Do You Pay?

How Much Do You Pay?

No one really understands the experience that change lives

That pave an agnostic a place to lay in decay in toxic waste

So most every identity paraphernalia to familiarize with smiles neatly

painted on a robotic face

But not this man, he played the bucket with his hands

And got paid but it was change people dropped in his can

twenty-three years ago he was a lawyer by description

But I guess all of a sudden he resigned from that position

But I've never seen the sky quite as clear as his eyes

As he blistered fingers paint down on the plastic

And in a twisted sort of way it all makes sense

While they rush to die he provides the soundtrack so tragic

He sits on the corner of 7th and 1st

And I was thirsty for a question anyone would nurse

One day I asked he why he gave up his career

He said, "I didn't, I just took off the name tag" then he added

Make Money and die that's the American Way

It don't matter what name you gave the bucket that you play

Make Money and die that's the American Way

It don't matter what name you gave the bucket that you play

So I took in what was said but I didn't accept it

Well maybe I did I mean I just wouldn't admit it

I was too committed to the belief that all the hard work from now would

improve my future existence somehow

So I said, you don't accomplish nothing sitting in the street

And I'm sure you barely survive on the pennies you gather

He said, to your surprise I make enough to eat

And I accomplish just as much as you only I stop pretending my job matters

He looked me in my face and told me I was a puppet

And what I do is no more important than playing a bucket

I still hear his voice when I set my alarm before bed

I never could wash what he said out of my head, so fuck it, it goes

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

It don't matter what name you gave the bucket that you play

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

It don't matter what name you gave the bucket that you play

See I could dress myself up in a white coat and say I'm a doctor

Carry a nine by my belt buckle wear a gold badge and say I'm a copper

Maybe I'm just a sloppy lazy crazy carbon copy part of the heart of the

deranged nation that gave me the generation ecstasy under water, I forgot

survive mind wash slaughtered by Austria's offers, caught your calls and

called your forefathers my bosses, lost it all in the name of gaining enough

to spin, consuming the youth ... amp my frenzy

When I taught my man playing away on his drum

Something clicked in my brain and I became less dumb

I'm working for bread crumbs

Pretending there's a meaning

But my employment is just a bucket, I'm desperately beating

And one day, I'll be old and retired

Looking at my life like what a waste of good fire

All because school never taught me how to be inspired

And the job concerned applying to myself just wouldn't hire

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

It don't matter what name you gave the bucket that you play

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

Make Money and die that's the American Way

But hey, here's my application, how much do y'all pay