Verse 1 They call it optimization, clean lines on a slide, Numbers marching upward while the quiet gets denied. A thousand names erased in one April breath, Sixteen percent reduced to math instead of flesh and breath. Pre-Chorus Revenue’s rising, the forecasts look strong, But something feels missing when the language feels wrong. Chorus You can’t spreadsheet a heartbeat, Can’t EBITDA a soul, There’s a cost you don’t measure When you’re trimming for control. AI hums in the boardroom, Future shining in gold, But life comes before the ledger — Hearts are never sold. Verse 2 Families paused in the doorway of a future undone, Potential unplugged before it’s even begun. They say it’s neutral, inevitable, just the way that it goes, But neutrality fades when a human story closes. Pre-Chorus The balance sheet’s healthy, the margins look right, But dignity disappears in the fluorescent light. Chorus You can’t spreadsheet a heartbeat, Can’t EBITDA a soul, There’s a weight in these decisions That the metrics don’t hold. If we’re stronger than ever, Why does strength feel so cold? Life comes before the ledger — Hearts are never sold. Bridge 1 There’s a silence where meaning should be, A vacuum where values used to breathe. If growth is the gospel we choose to believe, What happens to life when it’s priced to leave? Bridge 2 (Stronger “Life First”) But what if we drew the line where the heartbeat meets the code? Not every gain is progress when the human road is closed. Machines were built to serve us — not to rule the living dream, Let the wealth they generate restore the lives they seem to redeem. We choose life over ledger, flesh before the fold, Honor what can’t be optimized — the stories yet untold. No severance erases the fracture in the seam, But if profit must exist, let it serve the human team. Retraining, not replacement; transition, not discard — Life first in every decision, or the future stays too hard. Outro Numbers survive every quarterly test, But history remembers the lives we valued best. In the code and the chaos, the choice is ours to claim: Profit with purpose — or a future we can’t reclaim.
