I’ve read through the lyrics of the recent country song by Oliver Anthony that has gone viral. It’s titled “Rich Men North of Richmond.” I was pleased to see that in a recent interview, Anthony stated, “Find a way to start fixing those problems. Find a way to start having good conversations with people around you. That’s all I want out of this.”
Good for him. That’s why I’m writing this post. Anthony has raised a number of issues and I think I can provide some insights. I hope it will be helpful to many who have resonated with his message.
First, my overall comment is that I don’t doubt the genuineness of his feelings. And you can see by the way the song has spread and from many of the heartfelt comments on it that he has struck a nerve.
Second, I won’t analyze each line in order but will give an overall comment and then get to specifics. My overall comment is that Anthony is right to point to an elite that wants to control us. We saw that with lockdowns and with the feds muscling the various social media not to allow certain viewpoints to be expressed. We see it in so many ways: the feds trying to tell us what kind of kitchen utensils we may have, what kinds of cars we may drive, whether we can invest in China, etc. I could go on and on.
At the same time, it’s important not to imagine that the elite or the feds or anyone else have power over us that they don’t have. At times in the song, I think Oliver Anthony mistakenly thinks that.
Now to some specifics.
Anthony:
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bulls**t pay / So I can sit out here and waste my life away / Drag back home and drown my troubles away.
Henderson:
Are you really selling your soul? To me that would mean being told to lie on the job, either to fellow workers or to customers. If that’s the situation, get another job. This is an especially good time to look. Or, more likely, are you working hard at something you don’t particularly like. If so, try one of two options: (1) get another job or (2) figure out ways to make the job more to your taste; these might be little moves on the margin but they might add up.
What does “bulls**t pay” mean? Since it’s overtime, you’re getting time and a half, right? In America that’s typically not bad. Figure out how to cut your expenses, even by a little, so that you can save up and give yourself some flexibility to get another job. And one way of cutting your expenses has to do with the next sentence.
I assume that “drown your troubles away” means drinking alcohol to blot out the bad feelings. Be aware that it doesn’t work. So stop it. Instead, use that time to talk to a friend, read a self-help book, go for a walk, or any number of things that are better than drinking.
In short, recognize that you have agency; you have power. Use it.
Anthony:
It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you / Wish I could just wake up and it not be true / But it is, oh, it is.
Henderson:
It is a damn shame that the world’s gotten to. I write about it often on this blog. But there’s a lot of good too for people like me (the rich) and people like you. Think of how much our standards of living have improved, not only over the last two centuries and not only over the last 50 years, but even over the last 20. Think of the things we take for granted in the household, whether powerful computers that we can hold in our hand and do things that Dick Tracy would have envied or simple improvements that, added up, make a huge difference. Think of the treatments we have for various diseases. Think of the fact that if we search for a few minutes we can often find answers to questions that, 30 years ago, would have required hours in a library.
When you think about these things, there’s a chance that you’ll get some hope, which is something you sorely need.
Anthony:
Livin’ in the new world / With an old soul / 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 safe s**t and it’s taxed to no end / ‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond.
Henderson:
It is true that the feds have stepped up their surveillance of us: our conversations, our comments on various social media, and our bank accounts. It sucks. They shouldn’t. We should push to stop them. Some of them want total control; some of them want “just” more control. Let’s work together to figure out ways to stop–and reverse–that control. One way would be to repeal the USA PATRIOT Act, one of George W. Bush’s worst legacies. Another way would be to abolish the TSA. We need to think hard about how to do that. But thinking about it and organizing to achieve it can help reduce our despair.
Fortunately, though, although in the last century the dollar has lost over 95% of its value, it’s still worth something. You can still buy lots with it. And yes, we pay high taxes. And, by the way, we rich people pay even higher taxes, both absolute but also as a precent of our income. So let’s work to reduce taxes, recognizing that to do that, we must first reduce government spending.
Anthony:
I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere / Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat / And the obese milkin’ welfare.
Henderson:
Very clever first two lines.
It is true that the obese are “milkin’ welfare.” So are the non-obese. And welfare is more general than food stamps and TANF. It also includes federal payments to farmers and a whole lot of other payments. Regarding the folks in the street with “nothin’ to eat,” one minimum thing we should do is fight back against local governments that sometime make it illegal for private citizens to feed them.
Recognize also that even some rich people want to reduce the amount of power the government has over us. This “rich man west of Richmond” who’s writing this post certainly does.
Finally, I’ll end with the last two paragraphs of one of my favorite poems, Desiderata. It read it out loud to myself when the Immigration and Naturalization “Service” was trying to deport me and I needed inspiration. It worked.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
I especially like the “you have a right to be here” part.
READER COMMENTS
Dylan
Aug 16 2023 at 1:56pm
Good post and thanks for introducing me to Oliver Anthony, I liked the song.
I think you need to give a bit of poetic license here. Taleb made a similar point on EconTalk a few years ago about working for a wage being akin to slavery. I think that is hyperbole, but I get where he is coming from. I had a job for a number of years where much of the work we did required late night and early morning calls. I’d often be on the phone at 1am and again at 5am. Much of the normal working hours, there wasn’t all that much to be done, but I felt obligated not only by myself, but from comments by my employer to be at my desk from 8am-6pm and find something to do that looked sort of like work. I don’t know if I’d say I sold my soul, but I definitely found it soul crushing.
I later worked the exact same job, but as a part time contractor. I was amazed at how different things felt to me. My employer was now my client. I had certain deliverables, but it was up to me on when and how to deliver them. I no longer felt like my time was owned by someone else. I made much less money, barely enough to cover my rent. But I was much, much happier.
The government of course gets in the way of this kind of employment arrangement in a number of ways. One, by just plain making it illegal in many cases. Lots of rules about what constitutes a contractor from a 1040 employee, and the rules are tilted towards favoring a 1040 in almost all cases. And see the push over the last few years to reclassify gig workers as employees, removing the flexibility they currently have.
There’s also the linking of health insurance to employment that makes it more expensive and more stressful to be a freelancer. For the second time, I recently purchased a catastrophic health plan even though I’m over 30. Doing so is so complicated, that apparently only a few hundred people go through the hassle each year. It’s a long painstaking process and every person you talk to has never heard that this is something that is allowed or how they can possibly accommodate you. And, I’ll have to do it all over again at the beginning of the year.
David Henderson
Aug 16 2023 at 7:16pm
You wrote:
Thanks, and you’re welcome.
Given what you wrote, it sounds as if my option (2) is the way to go.
Good for you for taking charge of your own work life.
Stephen
Aug 16 2023 at 2:30pm
Seven years ago I gave a short talk to a SF Bay Area audience to raise money for a worthy cause. It touched on wealth and inequality but mainly it was about gratitude. Here’s an excerpt and though dated I think it still holds up.
The wealthiest person in the world, as most of you know, is Bill Gates, whose personal fortune is currently estimated to be $80 billion.
But historians say that the wealthiest person who ever lived was John D. Rockefeller, who at one time controlled 90% of the oil industry. Money Magazine took John D. Rockefeller’s fortune in relation to a much smaller American economy and also adjusted it for inflation. Money Magazine estimated that his wealth would be like having $250 billion today.
100 years ago John D. Rockefeller was 77 years old—by the way he would live another 20 years—but would you trade places with him? He had an army of servants, but here’s a little of what we have and he didn’t:
1) We can be in Paris in 11 hours. It would take him a couple of weeks to get to Europe from California by rail and then by ship.
2) If any of us had a medical emergency, paramedics would be here in 10 minutes or less. We would be treated by methods that would be infinitely better than were available in 1916 by the best doctors in the world.
3) We have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips. No matter how many people John D. Rockefeller had working for him, it would take them hours to research a topic in the Library of Congress and we can do it in minutes. For that matter, we have movies–with sound–and huge music libraries at our fingertips, too.
4) I am sure each of us can think of many more examples of progress—about how we can carry on a live conversation with a relative halfway around the world and see their faces, about how we can forecast to the hour when rain is about to start, about how we no longer need to keep a stack of maps in our glove compartment to know where we’re going.
When you look at it that way, hundreds of millions of us ordinary folk are each richer than Rockefeller.
How much of our wealth is represented by what’s in our bank account, and how much wealth do we have merely because we are alive in this time and this place?
David Henderson
Aug 16 2023 at 7:14pm
Well done, Stephen.
I often lay out what JD Rockefeller had and what we have and ask audiences who they would rather be. The vast majority prefer to be themselves.
steve
Aug 17 2023 at 9:58am
Being medical I like to use an example within my own lifetime. The Kennedy family was arguably the richest family in the world when their 37 week week infant died from prematurity. Being born at that age now there is almost a 100% chance of survival.
As to the song, meh. I was brought on country (real country, not this modern stuff), bluegrass and old time and this is just a variation of old complaints. He is actually paid by the mine if he is a miner os if he thinks it is inadequate take it up with them or change jobs. Markets determine his pay so there is only so much the company can do. I also think it is wrong to focus solely on DC. Local and state laws and law enforcement can be an even larger factor that DC depending upon your profession and where you live. He might be better off moving.
Steve
Thomas L Hutcheson
Aug 17 2023 at 11:06am
The feelings are genuine. The mistake is to attribute his tribulations to the malevolence of “elites,” an error I think Henderson comes close to making. CDC did not provide individuals and local governments with information and guidance of how to craft cost effective NPI’s. This was a huge error, but it does not fit well into a narrative of evil elites that want to “control” everything.
Tim
Aug 17 2023 at 12:36pm
There are many real people who feel that this song expresses their experience and how they feel. That’s a fact, no matter what your opinion.
Unless you are ” ” a rich man, why would you throw shade?
David Henderson
Aug 17 2023 at 5:36pm
I don’t think I threw shade. I was very careful not to and to respect the fact that his feelings are genuine.
But you do think I threw shade. Please tell me and the other readers where in my post I did so. Thanks.
Roger McKinney
Aug 17 2023 at 2:56pm
Great analysis! But it’s a lousy tune and a bad singer. And I’m a huge C&W music fan.
David Henderson
Aug 18 2023 at 11:41am
Thanks.
Timothy W Manley
Aug 17 2023 at 9:10pm
There’s more to drinking than just drinking. It socializing with friends and family. Almost every one who drinks, isn’t a problem drinker, and time with friends isn’t wasted.
Think of the rise in crime and suicide rates in the last 3 years. The number of young adults who are clinically depressed. The Record number of suicides. 200 a day. 4 per state per day average. The trans drag assault on children’s innocence. On common decency. The mostly peaceful fiery protest and people in the capital. That’s what is causing him angst.
Poor people are the absolute first people affected by inflation, something a self proclaimed rich man would not understand. After tax, you might have $800,000, a poor man only hundreds. Save your self pity.
Your being to literal, he’s not talking about fat people, he’s talking about people who are fat on the system, the able body who won’t work, or working for cash and collecting. Surely you understand that the more money given to able people makes much less money for those who truly need help. Because those people are starving for assistance.
David Henderson
Aug 18 2023 at 11:40am
You write:
Absolutely right. Nothing I wrote contradicts that. Notice that I was addressing his “drown my troubles away.” That doesn’t sound like social drinking to me.
You write:
A lot of these are real problems. He didn’t mention any of them. I’m not sure why you are so sure that that’s what he has in mind. Do you know him?
You write:
I’m not sure you’re right that poor people are the “first people affected by inflation.” It is true that that the fact that they’re poor means that they have less margin for a financial hit. You know so little about my financial situation. I understand a lot, having come from a modest-income family and having had a very low income from ages 16 to 24, and then again from age 28 to 30.
You write:
Where in my post did I express self pity?
Jose Pablo
Aug 18 2023 at 3:01pm
Poor people are the absolute first people affected by inflation
No. The “absolute first people affected by inflation” are people living out of fixed income investment or out of their cash holdings. They are very unlikely “poor” (at least before inflation).
You can see inflation as a transfer of wealth from “fixed interest rate lenders” (for instant, mainly, sovereign debt holders) to “fixed interest rates borrowers”(for instant, mainly, the government). I tend to believe that, generally speaking, lenders are wealthier than borrowers.
After all you can say that the income of people with NO income at all is indexed with inflation [0 * (1+i) = 0]. Inflation is never the main problem of people with no income.
Mark Z
Aug 18 2023 at 2:05am
I have a more critical take on this song, though not for the standard political reasons the song is controversial. For one thing, this presentation of opposition between good, working class, salt of the earth people on the one hand, and rich, elite parasites on the other is misleading (and I think most libertarians should agree). Those working class, salt of the earth people are often the beneficiaries of government largesse or regulations, perhaps as often as rich people. Miners for example lobby for and benefit from subsidies or tariffs that are at the expense of everyone else. I suspect the most harmful policies of the US government are more attributable to lobbying by broad working or middle class interests, like unions or professional organizations, than a few elite billionaires.
Secondly, targeting one’s animosity – rather vaguely – at politicians seems like a cop out. In addition to being rather hackneyed, it glosses over the fact that all those politicians got there by people – including these salt of the earth, working class folk – voting for them. Elected officials serve as convenient piñatas for populist rhetoric, but the electorate is the ultimate source of the problem and should be the ultimate object of one’s criticism. Even politicians’ personality defects are the voters’ fault (or rather, that people with such defects become so powerful is their fault). If politicians are liars or pedophiles (as the song implies), what does that say about the majority of voters who are willing or eager to vote for that kind of person? Those officials reflect the preferences of the voting public. In a democracy, I don’t think one can be both a ‘man of the people’ and scathingly and broadly critical of the class of elected officials, since they are just a product of the people.
Marie Czerniawski
Aug 18 2023 at 5:21pm
I appreciate your article as it tries to balance the thoughts coming from Oliver Anthony’s song. But I do think you have to research the man and hear his story before you come to judgement. There currently is an update and background on him on YouTube that might be helpful. The fact that so many people have embraced his song and it has resonated across the country is because they feel unheard. To say that they elected those in power is a lie. To watch election after election when the person you chose, the one who most resembles your needs and philosophy, gets shut out by politicians with big money behind them, THAT is what is driving the anger and anxiety of the little guy and why this song is resonating with so many middle and lower income people. Yes, we have much to be thankful for in this country and wonderful technology that has uplifted our lives. But we are watching that freedom and the ability to grow disappear (at least for the little guy). Maybe being a rich man from west of Richmond has shielded you from that truth.
David Henderson
Aug 19 2023 at 11:33am
You write:
Thank you.
You write:
I agree, which is why I was careful not to make a judgment. Instead, I evaluated some of his statements.
You write:
And it’s a lie I’ve never told. Almost never do the people I vote for get elected.
You write:
But often it’s not money. Rather, it’s that other people who have different philosophies vote for different people. One of the main reasons to favor freedom, as I do, is that it gives hundreds of millions of people the choice to live by their own philosophies. What I see is that the two major parties want to impose their will by force.
You write:
Amen.
You write:
It’s worse than that. It’s disappearing for everyone. Why, for example, can one not buy a new car for much less than $30K? It’s because of federal government policy on fuel economy, which causes car companies to artificially raise the price of cars with internal combustion engines so that they can sell fewer and thereby hit the government targets on fuel economy. That’s just one of many ways our freedom is disappearing.
You write:
I’m guessing that you don’t read many of my posts. I talk regularly about the disappearance of our freedom. So no, I’m not shielded from that truth.
James Anderson Merritt
Aug 19 2023 at 8:31pm
I haven’t been reminded of “Desiderata” for at least several years, but whenever that happens, I also remember the early 1970s, when I first started listening regularly to the radio, and Les Crane’s version was on regular rotation. What an amazing time that was! As well, I can’t help but remember the National Lampoon’s “answer song,” which they put out around a year later, as a lot of people were tiring of “Desiderata” over-exposure. For those who haven’t heard of this parody record, be aware that NatLamp’s stock-in-trade was raunchy iconoclasm, so approach anything from them with caution. But also be aware that NatLamp gave the late P.J. O’Rourke his first big break as a humor writer (and, back then, he was as raunchily iconoclastic as they come). I think he came on board after this tune’s 15 minutes of fame expired, but he might have been hanging out with the crew when it was being produced: “Deteriorata”
James Anderson Merritt
Aug 19 2023 at 8:36pm
For some reason, the link didn’t get embedded in my original post, so here it is explicitly. Enjoy… https://youtu.be/9Axyqk5ERKQ
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