BETTER TIMES © Miguel Heatwole 2000

video, 2017 winner of Alistair Hulett memorial Songs For Social Justice

    There are better times comin' if you don't pay any tax
    On the profits that your companies make off their workers' backs
    Your friends are influential and they can get things done
    So don't forget that big donation to the campaign fund

    Better times, better times,
    Better times are on their way that's what politicians say
    So if you've got one in your pocket better times are here to stay

    There are better times comin' 'cause your pay is gonna drop
    And this will bring employment ‘though you can't afford to shop
    When demand for goods and services has fallen through the floor
    Employers won't be laying off their workers anymore

    Better times, better times,
    Better times are on their way if you take a cut in pay
    And never join a union just do what your bosses say

    There are better times comin' 'cause the market isn’t slow
    So if 'share' to you means only what's in your portfolio
    Invest and speculate, strip assets, make the prices soar
    Make a killing, oil-drilling, or when there is a war

    Better times, better times
    Better times are on their way when the stockmarket you play
    The only way to win is when you make the people pay

    There are better times comin'. If it troubles you to think
    Just say poverty's the fault of people living on the brink
    Why not tune in to talkback? You'll get all the help you need
    To blame the poor on welfare not the ruling class’s greed

    Better times, better times
    Better times are on their way just ring up and have your say
    If the facts are not much use to you, you’re thinking the right way

    I want to live in hard times the way it was before
    In the bad old days when unions flexed their muscles for the poor
    When the public good was not for sale, and education free
    When we lived in our society not their economy

    Hard times, Hard times
    Come on, let the hard times roll, let's see justice take its toll
    There'll be hard times for the wealthy when we take back what they stole
    "Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears"
    The weeping of the wealthy is music to my soul!

    Notes

    Many thanks to Miguel Heatwole for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection