You work in the factory all of your life
Try to provide for your kids & your wife
When you get too old to produce anymore
They hand you your hat & they show you the door
Too old to work, too old to work
When you’re too old to work & you’re too young to die
Who will take care of you, how’ll you get by
When you’re too old to work & you’re too young to die?
You don’t ask for favors when your life is thru
You’ve got a right to what’s coming to you
Your boss gets a pension when he is too old
You helped him retire - you’re out in the cold
They put horses to pasture, they feed them on hay
Even machines get retired some day
The bosses get pensions when their days are thru
Fat pensions for them, brother, nothing for you
There’s no easy answer, there’s no easy cure
Dreaming won’t change it, that’s one thing for sure
But fighting together we’ll get there some day
And when we have won, we’ll no longer say:
“Too old to work, too old to work
When you’re too old to work & you’re too young to die
Who will take care of you, how’ll you get by
When you’re too old to work & you’re too young to die?“
- Joe Glazer