'scuse me pardon my greed- you're evicted, time to leave don't matter if your family's lived here 30 years we're tripling the rent time's up, the sheriff's here too bad for you if you freeze out in the street the croissant and cookie palace downstairs will symbolize the old neighborhood whose soul has slowly died been gentrified
chorus: that's progress that's progress doesn't progress make you feel good inside? cameras catch you runnin' red lights schoolrooms with no windows computer picks your carreer at age 15 universal price code i.d.'s with the stripe the laser reads and records where you've been, when you're sick and what you eat for every spy in government there's 50 private eyes who round up dirt on you to keep on file then sell the file
chorus: progress don't make me feel so good inside you can't live here we won't hire you we know all the nasty things you do bought a dossier on your whole life clear back to the pranks you did in school at age 5 there's millions on file at the touch of a button your boss or your landlord will love our choice cuts of gossip if it's lies, what can you do? 'cos it costs too much to sue the last person who'll ever see your file is you had enough, i moved back home to the mountains where i belong but ski resorts have tamed the wild west the hills we used to roam now they're privately owned and scarred with cheezy suburbs and cement the 'tracts for sale' sign promises 'deer in your back yard' if the deer somehow get past the fences and guards and the industrial 'park'
chorus: that's progress that's progress looks like i'll have to move to yellowknife progress-bleah! your idea of progress wrecks too many lives