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How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

nytimes.com

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Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#61

Post by tivert »

mempko wrote: post #48
brodouevencode wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fudge rounds It's a typical conservative talking point, because it's true. https://www.ebtcardbalance.com/georgia-ebt-food-list-ef9 > From the USDA guidelines above, you can purchase the following items using your EBT card. > Soft drinks > Candy > Cookies > Snack crackers > Ice cream > Seafood such as lobster and shellfish > Steaks > Bakery cakes I followed a woman in Publix the other day who used a SNAP card to pu…

So you are saying poor people should only eat bad, cheap food? What's your point exactly?

> So you are saying poor people should only eat bad, cheap food? What's your point exactly?

1. A bunch of the stuff on that list is literally garbage junk food.

2. The issue isn't "what people eat," it's "what taxpayer should pay for." I think what he's saying is that the government shouldn't be paying for unnecessary luxuries for people who can't afford them. If you're on food stamps, they should be good for healthy but modest food.

There are obviously complicated systems at grocery stores designed to check for food stamp eligibility (like they have to determine what food is subject to sales tax). It would be very good PR for the program if the government had a list of foods that were ineligible to be purchased due to their high-end/luxury nature.

3. I don't know what the typical food stamp benefit is, but my intuition is that if you used it to buy crab legs you'd run out of food before the next benefit period, because they're expensive per calorie. That then implies that this person who was using them to buy crab legs doesn't actually need the benefits.

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#62

Post by sumuyuda »

pseudo0 wrote: post #58
sumuyuda wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more than happy if my tax money could bring joy to these people who normally couldn’t afford these things. Make better to have the money spent on luxury food items than killing people in foreign countries.

That's easy for us to say, most working well-compensated tech jobs. The guy working overtime hours for bullshit pay would rather the government pay for neither and give a few dollars of his taxes back. Also, for the folks calling this a conservative talking point, Marx and Engels weren't exactly well-disposed towards the lumpenproletariat... Someone who is chronically unemployed by definition is not working class.

> The guy working overtime hours for bullshit pay would rather the government pay for neither and give a few dollars of his taxes back.

The problem is the person’s employer is allowed to pay too low a wage. That should be the focus rather than the government for wasting their taxes.

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#63

Post by brodouevencode »

enterprise_cog wrote: post #59
brodouevencode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can support a solution without supporting it's implementation.

If that truly was your point, you wouldn’t have needed to include your little story about how upset you were seeing someone use their EBT card in a way you disapprove of.

Then you've mis-projected my point twice.

I'm not totally opposed to welfare benefits especially when it comes to food and housing. I'm not opposed to having healthy food as an option - in fact I would rather those foods be the only option. But crab legs at nearly $30/lbs is abusive compared to wild-caught salmon at half that price, or free range chicken at a third of that price.

Stop trolling for outrage.

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#64

Post by mempko »

tivert wrote: post #61
mempko wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are saying poor people should only eat bad, cheap food? What's your point exactly?

> So you are saying poor people should only eat bad, cheap food? What's your point exactly? 1. A bunch of the stuff on that list is literally garbage junk food. 2. The issue isn't "what people eat," it's "what taxpayer should pay for." I think what he's saying is that the government shouldn't be paying for unnecessary luxuries for people who can't afford them. If you're on food stamps, they should be good for healthy…

> The issue isn't "what people eat," it's "what taxpayer should pay for." I think what he's saying is that the government shouldn't be paying for unnecessary luxuries for people who can't afford them. If you're on food stamps, they should be good for healthy but modest food.

Food stamps (SNAP) aren't paid out of your taxes. That's not how the federal government works. Your taxes don't pay for other people's food. Taxes are a debt, an obligation to pay. The money you use to pay those taxes comes from the government (and bank credit) in the first place.

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#65

Post by moribvndvs »

The thing that pisses me off about this guy and the normal folks that embrace the song is the lack of awareness and the down punching.

The first half of the song is more or less something that just about every working person can empathize with. We have to work harder for less and our representative government doesn’t represent us, let alone work for us. Brilliant, I agree.

Then it’s all downhill after that. Without missing a beat, it launches into the usual vicious demagoguery and tired North vs South rhetoric. The Rich Men Irrespective of Richmond _do not give a shit about you, me, or miners_ as long as the money flows. Here, we’re just peddling their usual indirection: it’s not the generations gross inequality of wealth and power or the exploitation, no it’s this welfare queen that’s holding you down. Despite, you know, said straw man having no power and being on the bottom end of a callous, engineered system that makes it almost impossible to crawl out from. Violently reacting to the symptoms while not looking at the cause.

As long we’re buying this trash, the dwindling middle class are shitting on the poor, our attention will be drawn from the folks that propagate this misery. Same as it’s been for the entirety of human civilization.

Every time a Republican celebrity or politician posts this song and a working class stiff likes or retweets it, a useful idiot is born.

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#66

Post by red-iron-pine »

orwin wrote: post #15
nonethewiser wrote: post #3

I would wager it struck a chord with more than "conservative pundits". Not only judging by its popularity, but messaging. It's a song about class struggle, not party politics. There are lots of people on both sides who've been hit hard economically. And even those that are doing fine can relate to not feeling represented by politicians in DC. Oh, and the guy's voice is awesome.

Ow, I'm rusty with my US knowledge, I thought it was a reference to Richmond the confederate capital, and rich northerners industrialists.

It is a reference to Richmond VA, which was indeed the Confederate capital ages ago.

2 hours north of Richmond is Washington DC. The "rich men north of Richmond" are in DC.

The song has nothing to do with Confederates, and more to do with folk anthems like those made by Arlo and Woody Guthrie. Or at least it does at first, but then syphons the rage to other targets, which look an awful lot like standard republican talking points.

Grassroots popularity? Or a conservative media machine trying to deflect from the problems they helped make?

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#68

Post by baerrie »

brodouevencode wrote: post #30
xeromal wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the fudge round lyric is one of those typical conservative talking point comments, but the rest of his message is about class struggle and I think many people can appreciate the frustration found in them. The guy seems like a good bean but with a conservative upbringing. Most people should be focused on how washington fails them. I'm partial to this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB9n0XA8dks Full disclosu…

> fudge rounds It's a typical conservative talking point, because it's true. https://www.ebtcardbalance.com/georgia-ebt-food-list-ef9 > From the USDA guidelines above, you can purchase the following items using your EBT card. > Soft drinks > Candy > Cookies > Snack crackers > Ice cream > Seafood such as lobster and shellfish > Steaks > Bakery cakes I followed a woman in Publix the other day who used a SNAP card to pu…

Why were you following someone? Also, you can use money to but crab legs, why not SNAP?

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#69

Post by archagon »

tivert wrote: post #60
sumuyuda wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more than happy if my tax money could bring joy to these people who normally couldn’t afford these things. Make better to have the money spent on luxury food items than killing people in foreign countries.

> I would be more than happy if my tax money could bring joy to these people who normally couldn’t afford these things. But then think of the people who also can't afford these things, but are paying into the system rather than taking from it. They'd rightly feel shafted by people buying luxury items on their dime. The perspective of a well-off person who can easily afford to pay into the system and afford most of th…

I feel that setting up the infrastructure to specifically exclude certain “luxury” foods would not only be a giant waste of money, but weirdly cruel and punitive.

Just give people the resources to buy what they need.

Re: How ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Reached the Top of the Charts

#70

Post by archagon »

brodouevencode wrote: post #63
enterprise_cog wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that truly was your point, you wouldn’t have needed to include your little story about how upset you were seeing someone use their EBT card in a way you disapprove of.

Then you've mis-projected my point twice. I'm not totally opposed to welfare benefits especially when it comes to food and housing. I'm not opposed to having healthy food as an option - in fact I would rather those foods be the only option. But crab legs at nearly $30/lbs is abusive compared to wild-caught salmon at half that price, or free range chicken at a third of that price. Stop trolling for outrage.

How far do you go? Should organic chicken be allowed over factory farmed? Fresh chicken over canned? Fresh milk over shelf stable, or shelf stable over powdered?

Why not just feed everyone on food stamps a vitamin slurry?

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