The maternity ward   Where I was born   Was knocked down in the first gulf war   To build an airport   For housing Allied steel,   For upholding ideals,   Like a stable petroleum price   And consumer choice.   Oh Lord won't you buy me   Any kind of car- I've walked so far.   Our few remaining parks   Are being smothered by cinemas   And the requisite stock of carparks   (Which aren't the same).   And our children will rejoice   In unbridled freedom of choice   Of superstores and different brands of   Cultural decay.   You only get out what you put in   And all that we pay is credence sincere   At the altars of competition and desire   All choice and no need   Makes Jack a dull economist   They're selling adspace on   The subway walls,   And privatizing the tenemant halls-   Prophet and cause superseded   By profit and loss.   They'd have Marshall's mustacioed face   Staring down from every public place   If they taught honest history in school    And if people knew who he was.   Oh Lord won't you buy me   Any kind of car- I've walked so very   Far away from where I began.