The Broken Window Dividend

[Intro: breaking glass becomes cash-register rhythm 💰]

[Verse 1: Economic Cabaret]
A bomb destroys a factory.
A contract builds it twice.
The ledger counts both purchases
But never names the price.
The nation’s output rises.
The evening anchors cheer.
Nobody asks what might exist
If war had missed the year.

[Chorus: Industrial Rock]
Welcome to the broken window dividend,
Where ruin looks like growth.
We borrow from tomorrow,
Then congratulate us both.
The profit goes to few.
The debt belongs to all.
The market sells the hammer,
And the public buys the wall.

[Verse 2: Funk, clipped brass]
A missile needs a worker.
A worker needs a wage.
A politician needs a threat
To justify the page.
The banker sells the borrowing.
The builder clears the ground.
Every blast creates demand.
Every loss gets passed around.

[Spoken Rap: ticker tape, marching snare]
Count the steel.
Count the fuel.
Count the interest.
Count the tools.
Don’t count the school that wasn’t built,
The clinic or the train.
Opportunity cost
Doesn’t march in the parade.

[Genre Shift: Post-Hardcore ⚡]
GDP GOES UP!
THE CITY GOES DOWN!
MONEY KEEPS MOVING
THROUGH A BOMBED-OUT TOWN!
PRIVATIZE PROFIT!
SOCIALIZE PAIN!
DESTROY THE BRIDGE,
THEN SELL IT AGAIN!

[Bridge: piano and mournful strings]
War can mobilize resources.
It cannot make them free.
Each shell contains the labor
That built no home or surgery.
Employment is not proof
That every purpose has the same.
We could pay those hands to cultivate
Instead of feed the flame.

[Final Chorus: Orchestra and choir 🕊️]
End the broken window dividend.
Count wealth by what remains.
Measure children safely sleeping,
Not the market’s wartime gains.
If spending shows our values,
Let our budgets make it clear:
Peace is not an empty ledger.
Peace is everything still here.

[Outro: cash register closes]

[Accountant]
The numbers look excellent.

[Child]
Where is my house?