Harry McClintock — Fifty Years from Now

[Verse 1] Now over there in Europe they're having lots of fun Their taxes and their big war debts have got them on the run We have to lend them money to keep them on their feet While a million good Americans are sleeping in the street Our international bankers are busy night and day They're figuring all the ways and means to give our dough away Our working men are unemployed, they're raising quite a row Prosperity's around the corner fifty years from now [Chorus] Fifty years from now, fifty years from now Just tell the grocery man you'll pay him fifty years from now When the landlord and the gas man come with both hands full of bills Just point towards the West and say, "There's gold in them there hills!" And fifty years from now, fifty years from now We'll find a way to pay your bill somehow Oh, the situation's funny, we've lent Europe all our money And they won't be able to pay it back till fifty years from now [Verse 2] Our domestic situation is certainly hard to beat We have to go round hungry 'cause we've raised to much to eat We cannot ride our railroads 'cause we haven't got the fare And we've piled up stacks of clothing till we've nothing much to wear They'll throw you in the hoosegow if you steal a loaf of bread But the gangsters fill our cities full of powder, smoke, and lead We'd like to find the answer, but it seems we don't know how We'll probably come out alright in fifty years from now [Chorus] Fifty years from now, fifty years from now Oh, everything'll be lovely in fifty years from now In the meantime all you have to do is stand around and grin And do your starving gracefully or the cops'll run you in It's really quite the style to take it with a smile It's supposed to help a hungry man somehow Though it's hard on some beginners to do without their dinners Just think of their nice trim waistlines in fifty years from now [Chorus] Oh, fifty years from now, fifty years from now We won't remember a thing about it fifty years from now We'll be out in the marble orchard where the tombstones are in bloom And underneath the green grass there's always plenty of room And fifty years from now, fifty years from now We'll be down where they can't reach us with a plow And among the saints and sinners and the losers and the winners It won't matter a heck of a lot fifty years from now