The Real Problem with “Rich Men North of Richmond”
The song perfectly identifies the problem but completely botches the solution
The past couple weeks have seen the emergence of a new, more explicitly political sub-genre of country music. First, “Try That in a Small Town” was released by Jason Aldean. Although I wasn’t a big fan of the lyrics, the song didn’t move me to respond. It was clearly meant as an anthem for country folks who were angry at and fed up with city dwellers. While I don’t like the incendiary rhetoric of these lyrics, it was par for the course of what we’ve already seen. Country folks hate city dwellers. City dwellers hate country folks. We already pretty much knew that.
“Rich Men North of Richmond”, on the other hand, was something else entirely. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the divide-and-conquer strategy used by elites today, and how their propaganda is swallowed hook, line, and sinker by those who are hurt by it the most. The song starts off with a line meant to resonate with all working-class Americans:
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
Oliver Anthony is spot on when he points out that so many people in America today are working their asses off for poverty wages. So far, the song is off to a great start: bringing awareness to the lives of so many struggling working-class Americans. He continues:
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
’Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
’Cause of rich men north of Richmond
Again, spot on. The wealthy elites and their politician puppets are the problem. They do want to control your lives! They do want to pay you poverty wages! Because if they can get away with wage theft, they can continue buying more luxury yachts and private jets while 58% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. Anthony is on a roll! He’s perfectly identified the economic problems at the heart of our society! So, what’s the solution he proposes? Higher minimum wage? Strengthening unions that allow workers to bargain for fair pay? A crackdown on the companies that steal hundreds of millions of dollars from their workers by not respecting current minimum wage and overtime regulations?
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Oh.
I’m not even going to comment on the undertones of these lyrics, not because they don’t exist, but because even without them the implication is heartbreaking. The way we help hardworking Americans is by scapegoating other hardworking Americans. If you’re making poverty wages and have to work 3 jobs to get by, it’s because there’s an epidemic of entitled pigs living off the government’s dime. If you can’t afford healthcare for your children, it’s because some fat guy in New York is wasting all your tax dollars on fudge. Don’t look into any of the statistics on how food stamps actually improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable among us, because it doesn’t fit with your narrative. After all, your Feelings shouldn’t have to worry about the Facts.
The real problem is not that rich people want to take your hard-earned money and give it to a different set of peasants. The problem is that they want to keep it for themselves. Why doesn’t this song mention Wall Street Bailouts or the companies with negative tax rates who actually take your hard earned tax dollars? I’m going to stop short of answering this question for a number of reasons, but mainly because I don’t want to point fingers at the people who enjoyed this song. Not everyone who likes this song is a bad person, but the song clearly presents a counter-productive solution to the problem it presents. Ironically, just like Oliver Anthony, the real rich people north of Richmond also want to cut food stamps and other welfare programs that help the poor, while increasing their already bloated slice of the pie. If we really want to stick it to the “rich men north of Richmond”, it won’t be by creating divisions between the urban and rural working classes: it will be by uniting these two factions into a Working-Class coalition that is finally strong enough to wrestle power away from the Ruling Class.
