PYRAMID SCHEME

Born in nineteen twenty eight

been around a good many years,

may I relay a little history

how a small town disappears.

It was a friendly little village

never the need to lock a door,

most all run a grocery bill

at Mom and Pop's general store.

Was a quiet pleasant little town

what community could ask for more,

then the merchants sought a plan

certain to make their income soar.

If the village had more people

they would purchase at our store,

why! our income would triple

with population three times more.

The gates were thrown wide open

signs and brochures welcomed all,

it's your land of milk and honey

if you answer the beckoned call.

Growth was slow at the beginning

each passing year picked up steam,

soon peaceful life and solitude

was a treasured long past dream.

Soon schools and jails overcrowded

real estate priced out of reach,

demand for roads, sewers, ditching,

debt hangs on the county like a leach.

Heavy traffic, fast food and malls

burst our county at the seams,

crime and dope is on the increase,

long gone, the peaceful scene.

Need for rules and regulation

require paid enforcement staff,

County subsidized permit fee's

justified by modern math.

It's our tax free enticements

that fill our industrial park,

when forced to pay a living wage

most fold up and then depart.

Waste disposal's overflow

more pollution day after day,

a left turn requires traffic lights

or an hours wait you’ll pay.

Who reaped the dollar harvest?

Not those who first rolled the ball,

was the greedy corporations

who grabbed the profits from it all.

There are those who still can’t see

the pyramid scheme is but a sham,

if we only had more people

we could recover from this jam.

The sacrifice of our small village

by far to high of price to pay,

those who can still remember

wish the land turned back to hay.

I saved a piece of earth's heaven

working two jobs for many years,

after I’m gone it won’t take long

to meet the subdivision shears.

The sad truth. . .

Exceptions to every rule, we have two factories

started, run, owned, and operated by home town

families still with us who have operated to the

benefit of the community for many years.