Maximizing individuals
Factors
the trade-off- Hope & Fear
I must live with what I have
I must spend my time
Living inside the line …
ALL I HAVE
Planting time is upon us now;
There’s choices to be made
A man can’t be too reckless nor, then
again, too afraid
Now we face the fear
And the hope for the coming year
The line that divides my hopes
From what I will ever touch
The line between what is and what is
too much
There’s not enough of anything for
everything I want
I wish I had more but I can’t
Break your back from five to nine
There’s no escape
You will live inside the line
The life we live is harsh and hard
The truth is no complaint
Those who will not look ahead
They are the fools and saints
And heaven knows, I am neither of
those
All I have are two strong hands
This plow and this bit of land
But these I will use
And do the best I can
Across the land a famine creeps.
Next year could be our turn
Foolish hope and deadly fear is the
balance that we must learn
So we can survive
Until the harvest arrives
CHORUS
THE PPF
THERE’S A LINE (D/Dm)
There is no end to what I desire
No ends to which I won’t aspire
But I’m faced with the facts
Inside the line is the best that this tired
Earth can give
Outside the line is the life I feel I
ought to live
Like it or not, that’s how life is
More of that and less of this
It’s one of life’s basic facts
More of this means less of that
A simple part of life’s design
You will yearn for more but you will
live inside the line
Heartache, confusion wait for those
who won’t resign
For those who refuse to learn to live
inside the line
Inside the line
There’s a line
And you will live inside the line
1
PART II (D)
Take what you will, pick and choose
For everything you get, there’s
something you loose
Have what you will, pay the cost
Measure the price by what you’ve lost
For every road that is taken
Another path forsaken
You have no choice; you have to
choose
And for anything you gain there’s
something you lose
Nothing for nothing that’s the law of
life
Everything is bought with a sacrifice
Like it or not you’ve got to decide
Life is a journey but it’s no free ride
Everything I see, seems to say
You want to eat -- you’ve got to pay
Allocation
ONE POTATO (D)
One potato, two potato, three potato,
four
Mother, make a pile, stack it up
behind the door
Just enough to keep us alive ‘til the
next crop’s in
Then of the rest we will have to
decide
What goes in the ground
And what we hold and hide
One potato, two potato, three potato,
four
Just enough live on though we cry for
more
Walking on the margin -- living on the
edge
One wrong step and we’re stepping
off a ledge
Would that I knew what lies in store
And how to arrange these One potato,
two potato, three potato, four
I will plant in the hope that the future
will be better
I will save for I fear it will be worse.
I want to get ahead, but I dare not fall
behind
Plant too many, plant too few
Wrong either way if you do
We do the dance with fear
We do a dance with hope
In the coming year
Will be we hang on or hang from the
end of our rope
We rise in hope and we sleep in fear
Will we somehow cope?
And reap our crops when the coming
harvest is here
One potato, two potato, three potato,
four
My future on my floor
But if this year is worse than the year
before
We may play one potato, two potato,
three potato
No more
2
Tradition and Command
JUST THE WAY IT IS
All through my life it has been pretty
clear
How I would live and behave
By twenty I would have two kids and
a wife
And by fifty I’d be carried to my
grave
I have planted my crops as my father’s
father did
And the church that is mine once was
his
If there’s a better way
I am sure that I can’t say
That’s just the way that it is
And should I forgot about my duty
The constable reminds me, yes he will
Half my crop right off the top
Goes to his Lordship on the hill
And another ten percent
Every Sunday is sent
Into the Church’s till
And I’ve had little reason to wonder
Is there a better way than this?
Right or wrong,
When the weak meet the strong
That’s just the way that it is
Oh, they took this land from our
family
Generations ago
At the point of a sword
It was given to the lord
By what right I don’t know
As if this was as it had always been
What was ours now was his
Right or wrong,
When the weak meet the strong
That’s just the way that it is
But at least I could guess what
tomorrow was bringing
And not be too far amiss
Pretty much the same,
As yesterday
Oh, that’s just the way that it is
Markets are now the only choice
WHAT NOW
What do I do now?
When I can no longer do
The only thing I’ve ever done
Where do I go now?
When the only place I know
Will not longer provide
What can I be now?
When I can no longer be
The only thing that I’ve ever been
What to do,
Where to turn
Questions I have never asked
Answers I have never learned
But I must make my way somehow
Nothing that I used to know
Guides me anymore
What do I do now?
3
Resources follow money -- the market
arrives
IF THEY NEED ME
When it’s hard, Lord it’s hard
What’s a hard-working man supposed
to do?
You’ve got to find somebody who
needs somebody who can do the
things you do
Cause if they need me they will pay
me
And if they pay me I will go - o - o.
I will go where the money is
Where I can make a living
I will do what I must
I will do what I can
I will put my trust in money in the
hand
If they need me they will pay me
And if they pay me I will go.
But I hear that Dublin City is no place
to be
People crowd in from the country
Once honest farmers are now beggars
and thieves
When a man gets too hungry he
forgets what he believes
What should I do?
Anything they pay me to
Where should I go
Where there’s cash to show
Somewhere they need me
Somewhere they will pay me
That’s somewhere I will go
IRELAND/ AMERICA
Ireland I fear
There’s nothing for me here
The truth is hard, but it’s clear
We will not last another year
Only a fool would try to stay
I cannot simply lay me down and
disappear
This is my only chance
I must leave you now
Oh, Ireland I fear
Ireland I fear
There’s nothing for me here
The truth is hard, but it’s clear
I must leave you now
Oh, Ireland I fear
America, I hope you’ll take me in
I’ve heard good things about you
I’m looking for my new life to begin
I can’t do it without you
They say you fought the king himself,
to set your people free
If you did for them
Won’t you do it for me?
America I hope you’ll smile on me
Let me do what I can
Tell me what you need for me to be
I’m a hard-working man
4
America I’ve told
You got streets lined with gold
You don’t have to promise me that
But if I give you everything
Would you give me something back?
America, I hope you’ll take me in
I’ve heard good things about you
I’m looking for my new life to begin
I have no reason to doubt you
America I’m headed for you
I hope you’re ready for me
BETTER DEAD IN IRELAND
So this is what I came for.
My wife and children dead along the
way
And I find myself another kind of serf
In a New York City slum
Maybe I was better a dead man in
Ireland
Than what I have become
I have taken money
Done what I was paid to do
Honest work when I could
But I have done things
No Christian man ever should
For the sins that I have seen
Heaven may strike me blind and dumb
Surely I was better off a dead man in
Ireland
Than what I have become
I should have stayed
And filled an Irish grave
God, I wish I’d never come
Surely I was better off a dead man in
Ireland
Than what I have become
Civil War and Inflation
MY LAST CIGAR (little green
pieces of paper)
I spent my time in the Grey-man’s
army
Now I’m working on the docks
There’s money here a-plenty
I get the grandest wages I ever earned
But it’s what you can buy, not the
name on the money that measures
what you’ve made
And every day, my daily pay
Buys less than the day before
And the money in my pocket starts to
feel
Like little green pieces of paper
Nothing more
Oh these green pieces of paper They
seem to grow smaller by the day
I know there’s a war
But I was fighting for
The chance to make a living
So they give me a raise
But it never pays
The prices keep on rising
And it still feels surprising
To have this much in my pocket
And still be so damn poor
And the man behind the counter, he
shrugs and says
5
“I’m sorry friend, but you should see
my costs.
They keep on rising every day
I’ve got to pass them on
Or I’d be lost: You’re not the only one
Holding little green pieces of paper
And watching them burn out like a
spark
Making more, getting less.
A fast dying, flickering candle in the
dark
The whole thing is just an ugly joke
We got money; And we’re broke
Then I heard the union army a thunder
down the road
Three miles away, if that far
And I saw my once in a lifetime
chance;
I looked at my friend across the bar
And I used my last ten-dollar bill to
light my last cigar
Land opens up in Dakota for
homesteading. We again see resources
pulled in the direction dictated by
factor payment and the role of the
government in the allocation of
factors.
You’re the sweetest sight I’ve ever
seen
Prairie arms reach out to me
Endless skies as far as I can see
Next to the country that holds my
heart (I left behind)
It’s as close to heaven as I’ve been
I’ll off to live alone again.
With no one to depend on
Just my Alabama woman
And our boy
In a place where no one can hear me
speak
No one can look down on me
And damn the people I left behind
I hope they cheered to watch me leave
I’ve tried to be what I can’t be
It only brought me shame and misery
I am not a city man, I am not a soldier
But a man who plants and harvests
I have been and I can be again
Oh, Dakota country
We just met and you already feel like
my friend
Next to the green hills of Ireland itself
You’re the sweetest sight I’ve ever
seen
You’re as close to heaven as I’ve been
DAKOTA
Oh, Dakota country
We just met and you already feel like
my friend
Next to the green hills of Ireland itself
6
But economics is not just about
money: individuals maximize utility,
not profit.
COMING HOME
American, it’s been thirty years and
you have done me well
One last gift I ask of you, Let me say
farewell
A man must follow his heart,
Like a plow must follow the rain
America you’ve been good to me
But you’re not my home and you never
will be
Some things money can’t buy
Ireland, I’m coming home
Ireland, though I’ve been gone
I did not forget you once
You are the light that lit my life
In everything I’ve done
Now I’ll return; a better man than I
was
I’m coming home to die where I was
born
I’m coming to end my life where it
began
CHORUS
7