She drops her eldest at school
Old enough to remember when her dad still lived at home
Sticks the younger in his buggy
In no kind of hurry as she wheels him into town
Looking for another payday loan
A bit of credit for her phone
Looking for a stay of execution
While she finds a solution
For the payments on the washing machine
When the money’s all gone

But she’s the engine of the economy
She’s the grease in the machine
Every fiver that she borrows
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget her productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round


It was a decent enough job
Until redundancy came his and his mates way
It’s easy to blame the migrant worker
When you’re called a shirker by the paper that you buy every day
Looking for someone else to blame
Drinking away his shame
But when the words won’t come
But the punches will
It’s the ones that you love
Standing in the way




Now he’s the engine of the economy
He’s the grease in the machine
Every fiver that he borrows
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget his productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round

There was that holiday in Greece
They had a bit of money for a place in the sun, if only for two weeks
They were better times
She wonders about the people that they met in foreign climes
Looking for some happy memories
But the pictures on the TV
Say they’re struggling
And just as broken
As she feels on days
On days like these

They’re the engine of the economy
They’re the grease in the machine
Every fiver that they borrow
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget their productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round








There was that holiday in Greece
He had a bit of money to take the family to the beach
They were happy times
And the people that they met all seemed nice
Looking for the reason it all changed
Still looking for someone to blame
In all the wrong places
In all the wrong faces
And wondering
If she’s still the same

They’re the engine of the economy
They’re the grease in the machine
Every fiver that they borrow
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget their productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round

From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round