The Country Music Singer Who Took Aim at Welfare 50 Years Before Oliver Anthony—and Also Hit #1 on the Music Charts

In 1970, when Guy Drake wrote “Welfare Cadillac,” one could argue that we hadn’t yet given welfare a chance. Today, there is no such excuse.

Oliver Anthony’s blue-collar anthem “Rich Men North of Richmond” is the most-talked-about song in America. 

Since debuting on August 7, the song has racked up 45 million views on YouTube (at time of writing), and sits atop the Billboard Hot 100. While tens of millions of listeners clearly love the Virginia native’s hit, it has also taken flak for its economic populism. 

The song takes aim at everything from inflation (“the dollar ain’t sh*t”) to high taxes and low wages. But it’s the song’s attack on welfare that has really riled people up.  

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 

These words did not sit well with many, particularly those in the media. 

“Instead of trafficking in easy caricatures and political tropes, we must understand that the plight of our food-insecure neighbors is our plight as well,” said Hannah Anderson in Christianity Today, who shared her own story about being on welfare. 

“Anthony really does punch down on the poor,” Kenan Malik wrote in The Guardian. 

For many journalists, criticizing welfare is a third rail. Welfare helps poor people, therefore good people support welfare.

There are problems with this logic, and Anthony is not the first country music songwriter to poke at the sacred cow of welfare. 

READ the rest of this article at AIER.