If one
Gets only half a rupee worth
For every rupee spent
What is being lost
Is a real value in favour of a notional one.

You wonder why
You’re dispensable even where you contribute
Or why your voice gets drowned in echoes
Or why change- once life altering
Has been reduced to the prostitution of trend.

You question why
You should bother with setting high personal standards
When public standards have fallen to an all time low.
Or why the qualifications required to build a life
Make cleverness more important than integrity.

You can see
That all of humanity is now subsumed
Within the logic of the economy.
Value has moved from what you possess
To what you’re able to acquire and gain.

We perversely celebrate
The destruction of human values as progress
The notional as the real
The machine as the master
And enslavement as freedom.