We Can't Make It Here Lyrics

There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign<br />
Sitting there by the left turn line<br />
The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze<br />
One leg missing and both hands free<br />
<br />
No one's paying much mind to him<br />
The V.A. budget's just stretched so thin<br />
And now there's more coming back from the Mideast war<br />
We can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
And that big ol' building was the textile mill<br />
That fed our kids and it paid our bills<br />
But they turned us out and they closed the doors<br />
'Cause we can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock<br />
They're just gonna sit there â€~til they rot<br />
â€~Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack<br />
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks<br />
<br />
Empty storefronts around the square<br />
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere<br />
You don't come down here unless you're looking to score<br />
We can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
The bar's still open but man it's slow<br />
The tip jar's light and the register's low<br />
The bartender don't have much to say<br />
The regular crowd gets thinner each day<br />
<br />
Some have maxed out all their credit cards<br />
Some are working two jobs and living in cars<br />
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink<br />
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. C.E.O.<br />
See how far 5.15 an hour will go<br />
Take a part time job at one your stores<br />
I bet you can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
And there's a high school girl with a bourgeois dream<br />
Just like the pictures in the magazine<br />
She found on the floor of the laundromat<br />
A woman with kids can forget all that<br />
<br />
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do<br />
Forget the career and forget about school<br />
Can she live on faith? Live on hope?<br />
High on Jesus or hooked on dope<br />
[ James McMurtry Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]
When it's way too late to just say no<br />
You can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store<br />
Just like the ones we made before<br />
â€~Cept this one came from Singapore<br />
I guess we can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin<br />
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in<br />
Should I hate â€~em for having our jobs today<br />
No I hate the men sent the jobs away<br />
<br />
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams<br />
All lily white and squeaky clean<br />
They've never known want, they'll never know need<br />
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed<br />
Their kids won't bleed in their damn little war<br />
And we can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
Will I work for food, will I die for oil<br />
Will kill for power and to us the spoils<br />
The billionaires get to pay less tax<br />
The working poor get to fall through the cracks<br />
<br />
So let â€~em eat jellybeans let â€~em eat cake<br />
Let â€~em eat shit, whatever it takes<br />
They can join the Air Force or join the Corps<br />
If they can't make it here anymore<br />
<br />
So that's how it is, that's what we got<br />
If the president wants to admit it or not<br />
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall<br />
Hear it on the wind if you're listening at all<br />
Get out of that limo, look us in the eye<br />
Call us on the cell phone tell us all why<br />
<br />
In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine<br />
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains<br />
That's done closed down along with the school<br />
And the hospital and the swimming pool<br />
<br />
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat<br />
There's rats in the alley and trash in the street<br />
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door<br />
We can't make it here anymore

There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign<br />
Sitting there by the left turn line<br />
The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze<br />