[Verse 1] Henry eyed the abbey ledgers, counted every pasture, Monastic rents were steady gold, but his treasury wanted faster, So he cracked the cloisters open, sold the harvest of the land, Called it reformation — it was borrowing from a future hand. Five hundred years don't change the trick, just dress it in new clothes, Monetize the morning light before the morning even grows. [Chorus] Lease the meters, lease the road, Trade tomorrow's harvest for a check you can unload, Seventy-five years, ninety-nine on the page, Mortgage the horizon, wake up inside the cage. Count the zeros, read the clause, The city signs the future off because the budget gnaws. [Verse 2] Chicago had a hole to patch, thirty-six thousand meters, Leased them out for seventy-five years to private cash repeaters, One-point-one-five billion landed soft upon the ledger, But the watchdog ran the numbers — nine-seven-four short, no hedger could deny it: undervalued, sold the coin-slots cheap and quick, Then a "true-up" clause came knocking — close one street, the city pays the trick. [Verse 3] Down the lakeshore, Skyway sold for eighteen-thirty, ninety-nine years spoken, Indiana watched and followed, "Major Moves" the promise token, Cintra-Macquarie paid three-point-eight to pave the northern spine, Then went bankrupt by fourteen — IFM bought up the signline for five-point-seven billion, proof the asset's worth was hidden, Selling off the usufruct — the fruit, not root — while profit's bidden. [Verse 4] Pittsburgh eyed its water system, weighed the private sale, Midland sold its pipes to Veolia, watched the costs derail, Rates went up, the service faltered, pipes still old and thin, The council learned the hardest lesson: what you lease, you can't rent back again. From England's Thames to Jersey's shoreline, water barons drew the map, Privatize the public river, then collect the overflow on tap. [Bridge] Usufruct's an old word: the right to taste the fruit, While somebody else still holds the deed down at the root, Improvident's the verdict when a deal's struck in the dark — Tudor king or modern mayor, chasing one bright spark. [Chorus] Lease the meters, lease the road, Trade tomorrow's harvest for a check you can unload, Seventy-five years, ninety-nine on the page, Mortgage the horizon, wake up inside the cage. Count the zeros, read the clause, The city signs the future off because the budget gnaws. [Outro] From Tudor rent rolls to a Chicago cone, Same old leash around tomorrow's loan, Divide the decades, multiply the debt, History keeps the receipt it never lets you forget.
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