[Verse 1] Berlin, eighteen-eighty-three, old Bismarck strikes a deal, Not out of love for workers, but to blunt the socialist zeal — Sickness pay and pensions, insurance for the sweat, First brick in the welfare wall, a chancellor's safety net. Fast forward to the Blitz, London counting up the cost, Beveridge writes a report on everything the war almost lost — Five giants he named: Want and Squalor, Idleness, Disease, Ignorance stalking children — cradle to grave, if you please. [Chorus] Three worlds, three worlds, Esping-Andersen's frame, Liberal, Conservative, Social Democratic — learn the name, America keeps it lean and means-tested, that's the liberal way, Germany ties your benefits to your job, conservative pay, Sweden decommodifies — now sing it, don't be shy — You don't need the market just to eat or keep a roof that's dry! [Verse 2] Decommodification's the word that teaches like a key, How far can you live without bowing to the market's decree? Low in the land of liberal thinking, work or you'll go hungry still, Higher where the church and firm uphold the family's goodwill, Highest in the Nordic model, status melts like winter snow, Universal cradle service, everybody gets to go. Three regimes, three different bets on what a state should do, Compare the budgets, trace the logic, and the pattern shines on through. [Chorus] Three worlds, three worlds, Esping-Andersen's frame, Liberal, Conservative, Social Democratic — learn the name, America keeps it lean and means-tested, that's the liberal way, Germany ties your benefits to your job, conservative pay, Sweden decommodifies — now sing it, don't be shy — You don't need the market just to eat or keep a roof that's dry! [Bridge] Rawls says build behind a veil, you don't know where you'll land, So tilt the scales toward the lowest, lend the weakest hand — Nozick says a tax's a taking, leave the free trade be, Justice is the steps that got you there, not some grand decree. Every budget is a referendum on whose theory wins, Count the welfare spending, see whose argument begins. [Verse 3] So when you read a nation's numbers, pensions, healthcare, dole, Ask which of the three worlds is living in its soul, Is it Bismarck's old insurance, still tied to what you earned? Is it Beveridge universal, a flat right you have learned? The answer's in the decommodifying scale you measure by, Low, middling, or total — that's the compass, that's the why. Welfare states aren't charity, they're philosophy made real, Rawls and Nozick arguing through every budget deal. [Outro] Bismarck, Beveridge, Esping-Andersen's three, Decommodify the lesson, let the market set you free — or not, Liberal, Conservative, Social Democratic, got the frame, Sing the worlds of welfare, you'll remember every name.
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