The Time Value Of Money

Day after day as the time ripples on,
First it was weeks, now it’s sets that are gone;
Cost of our life from the past mounts on up,
Future’s no better in times that are rough.

Three-dollars-fifty on welfare’s the wage,
It’s somewhat better when work we engage;
Still, at ten dollars, not much to send home –
Back to my homeland from which I have roamed.

There, this is plenty – luxurious fare,
Where wife and kiddies live close to despair;
If I can make it my two years alone,
I can bring family, make this land my home.

It won’t be perfect, though better at first,
They won’t know hunger, for good-water thirst;
We may be able to rise in this land,
Join with these people, the future withstand.

I am bewildered – don’t these people know?
They’re on the skids to a lifestyle quite low
As the oasis and sand balance out;
They think forever is what they’re about.

It’s not, I’ve seen it, that wolf on the chase;
I am ahead of the rest in this race –
I got out quickly – not so for the rest –
Canada skims all the cream, leaves the rest.

They can sustain it 'till resource runs out,
Then all the desert will drift round about;
They think they prosper by selling the farm,
Timbers, and oil, with no sense of alarm.

China’s abandoned concern for their smoke,
Pooling resources, and going for broke;
If they can capture next source of raw power,
They will control what controls the next hour.

Meanwhile this continent basks in its wealth,
Sing their high praises for corporate health;
Two little problems converging ahead,
Bringing calamity down on their head:

First they think one is much better than all,
Praises and trophies to those who stand tall;
China’s extracted our corporate way,
Made “China Inc.” ’fore they’ve come out to play.

Like in this land where the Hutterites save,
Pooling their wealth like an Ark on the wave;
Keeping costs down with their bulk-buying plan,
Working their farms with large sections of land.

Best learn Chinese not just English or French,
Spanish is nice while you sit on the bench;
These folks are blind to what’s coming along,
Someday they’ll see it, when all has gone wrong.

Second, they’ve taken the engine right out,
Think that it’s money which brought this about;
Tossed in the garbage is faith which they had,
Enron’s the tip of a slide which is sad.

All can be bought with the cost of one’s soul;
All can be sold to accomplish one’s goal;
Monies a tool, helped a lot here unfold,
But when it’s god, it’s a calf made of gold –

Not standing in for ‘Creator of Life’,
But for the power God built into life;
Taking a part, thinking it’s all there is,
Defines the problem with these people’s biz.

God is much bigger than earthly resource;
Bigger than brains; power measured by horse;
Bigger than cataracts, lightning, and wind;
Bigger than countries collected to win.

God is eternal – and long-term His plan,
He’ll be around when we're gone from this land;
He has a vision of what will survive –
Quality – love – and resources to thrive.

Quality, love, and the rest has its source,
Back in His Wisdom and Being of course;
Right from the first we’ve said, “Please Mother dear,
I’ll do it my way, so clear out of here.”

That’s been a recipe since people’s birth–
Evil, and heartache, and rape of the Earth,
Always have followed such parasite ways:
“Anything goes, just as long as it pays”.

Theft is the way once the bottom is reached,
Look on the desert where people are beached:
Sell out your soul, or go hungry and die
Forced even now by the hoarding up high.

It will not happen in one final day,
More like the Romans – just trickle away;
“Move to the high ground” – the game which I play –
“Nice for the present, not long-term”, I’d say.

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