The frustrating thing about that particular song is that it’s inches away from truly understanding the problem, but it misses the mark in a dramatic fashion. The topic of depression and having your labor be exploited is one that resonates with me as well, but scapegoating people who are on welfare is exactly how the people in power maintain that control, by pitting the lower classes against each other. I also think its title and lyric about “rich men north of Richmond” conjures images of the confederacy by labeling at northerners as an “other” (When there are also plenty of poor exploited people north of the mason/dixon line) and is a pretty dangerous rhetoric. Even if he only intended to refer to DC, it’s still a clumsily written line that could be misconstrued.
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