We Can't Make It Here Lyrics - Live In Europe - James Mcmurtry

Theres a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign 

Sitting there by the left turn line 

The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze 

One leg missing and both hands free 

No ones paying much mind to him 

The V.A. budgets just stretched so thin 

And now theres more coming back from the Mideast war 

We cant make it here anymore 

And that big ol building was the textile mill 

That fed our kids and it paid our bills 

But they turned us out and they closed the doors 

'Cause we cant make it here anymore 

You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock 

Theyre just gonna sit there til they rot 

Cause theres nothing to ship, nothing to pack 

Just busted concrete and rusted tracks 

Empty storefronts around the square 

Theres a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere 

You dont come down here unless youre looking to score 

We cant make it here anymore 

The bars still open but man its slow 

The tip jars light and the registers low 

The bartender dont have much to say 

The regular crowd gets thinner each day 

Some have maxed out all their credit cards 

Some are working two jobs and living in cars 

Minimum wage wont pay for a roof, wont pay for a drink 

If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. C.E.O. 

See how far 5.15 an hour will go 

Take a part time job at one your stores 

I bet you cant make it here anymore 

And theres a high school girl with a bourgeois dream 

Just like the pictures in the magazine 

She found on the floor of the laundromat 

A woman with kids can forget all that 

If she comes up pregnant whatll she do 

Forget the career and forget about school 

Can she live on faith? Live on hope? 

High on Jesus or hooked on dope 

When its way too late to just say no 

You cant make it here anymore 

Now Im stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store 

Just like the ones we made before 

Cept this one came from Singapore 

I guess we cant make it here anymore 

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin 

Or the shape of their eyes or the shape Im in 

Should I hate em for having our jobs today 

No I hate the men sent the jobs away 

I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams 

All lily white and squeaky clean 

Theyve never known want, theyll never know need 

Their shit dont stink and their kids wont bleed 

Their kids wont bleed in their damn little war 

And we cant make it here anymore 

Will I work for food, will I die for oil 

Will kill for power and to us the spoils 

The billionaires get to pay less tax 

The working poor get to fall through the cracks 

So let em eat jellybeans let em eat cake 

Let em eat shit, whatever it takes 

They can join the Air Force or join the Corps 

If they cant make it here anymore 

So thats how it is, thats what we got 

If the president wants to admit it or not 

You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall 

Hear it on the wind if youre listening at all 

Get out of that limo, look us in the eye 

Call us on the cell phone tell us all why 

In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine 

Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains 

Thats done closed down along with the school 

And the hospital and the swimming pool 

Dust devils dance in the noonday heat 

Theres rats in the alley and trash in the street 

Gang graffiti on a boxcar door 

We cant make it here anymore