The minimum wage blues

Call me a Marxist  
but I think that 149 years  
is long enough to deduce  
that a minimum of wage  
for the maximum of my effort  
in order to create a surplus of profit  
that never quite reaches my pockets  
isn't an honest way to live  
 
but there are words for people who think these thoughts  
that my effort should result in my reward  
and not just in pennies thrown  
from such heights that they break my hands as I reach to catch them  
some say the system failed  
I say it failed me  
some say it's served us well  
some broke their backs serving it  
 
I want a better car  
healthier food  
longer four walls and higher roof  
to rest my weary head at night  
after a hard days work of being stepped on  
Pay for it  
They say  
as they hold on to my hard earned pennies  
 
I'm lazy  
too stupid to work the system to my benefit  
to find effective ways to create capital from effort  
and affluence from influence  
I should work harder  
until I'm pushed against the ceiling of what it's possible for me to achieve and then burst through  
a challenge no less noble for the mediocrity in its completion  
 
I'm greedy, they say  
because I want my pockets a little fatter  
with the wealth I hoard for others  
I should be grateful for the things I have  
because I wasn't able to set up a dynasty  
because I haven't yet found a means to crushing others beneath my boots  
because I haven't managed to pluck holes in your pockets  
in order to fill my own  
 
how stupid of me  
to think that I could prosper from honesty and graft alone  
without the gilded whip of oppression  
to hold up my name as a parable of virtuous society  
 
In this world  
that has now undoubtedly  
reached the highest peak of paragons  
civilised and just  
free from the oppression of religion and dogma  
freed from the chains of the past  
to birth a time of equality and prosperity for all  
 
how many years bowing of my spine  
of crushing my own spirit  
of piling pressures and footing burdens  
will it take to claw my way to financial nirvana  
and how long will it take for someone to decide I don't deserve it after all  
 
I'm tired  
of always carrying the heaviest burden  
I'm tired of being told I don't have it so bad  
I'm tired of knowing I don't have it the worst  
I'm just so tired  
of feeling empathy and brotherhood  
and not seeing the same in others  
 
But most of all  
I'm sick to death of staring down at a foot  
that was born glued to a rung on the societal ladder  
instead of looking up  
and between the mouthfuls of shit  
that I'm assured must flow forever downwards  
telling those arse holes above me  
to go fuck themselves  
because I'm not a Marxist  
 
I just want what's mine