Capitalism, 2023

Rich Men North of Richmond

by Oliver Anthony

A sunny, beautiful day in Redwood City. I’m parking my car to go to my favorite eatery for lunch. I notice an elderly man across the street shuffling slowly up the sidewalk. One foot in front of the other. Slowly. Teetering. I thought, “He’s about to fall.” I hurried to his side, “Can I offer you an arm to hold?” “No, I’m fine, but thank you,” he said. Then added, I’m coming back from Kaiser where I had surgery for brain cancer. I’m going to catch a bus at Sequoia Station (about a half  mile up the road).” It was clear to me, he’d be lucky to make it across the street, let alone to the bus station. “I’m trying to get back to Brookdale, my senior living center. We lost our regular driver, so I have to take the bus.” I said, “Look, why don’t I give you a lift?  “My name is Rick.” “I’m Bob,” he said.

On the ten-minute drive to Brookdale, he told me he’d worked as an admin all his life for several companies. He’d been married once for two years, now divorced. No children. No relatives. He said he depends on $2,000 a month from the VA and his meager savings he earned working overtime all those years. He worries that his money will dry up. He would have nowhere to go, and said, “The government doesn’t seem to care. There is so much paperwork.”

As I dropped him off, I gave him my card, “Bob call me if you need a ride again.” He walked through the automatic door, “Thank you Rick. You are very nice.”

Driving home, I thought: That could be me. I have friends who’ve struggled with and died of brain cancer. Unlike Bob, my friends had three things: friends, family, and money. Why is the end of life so miserable for so many Americans, especially those without resources?

Capitalism? We grind people up, especially those at the bottom. Our political classes know what is going on. They tell us about it hoping to get our votes.

Donald Trump:

“The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.”

Hillary Clinton:

“The deck is stacked in favor of those at the top.”

Bernie Sanders:

“This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about.”

Along comes this new song by Oliver Anthony: “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The right is loving it, the left is contemptuous of it. The left needs to get a clue. The dems used to be the party of the poor, the working classes and the oppressed. No more. The people who love this song had been called “deplorables” by Hillary Clinton in 2016. So, guess what? They made Trump president.

As you consider the words to Rich Men, think of the rows of homeless tents in our major cities and under our freeways. Think of the  people shooting up and dying on the street in the Tenderloin. Also, think about the hatred Trump’s base has for the costal Ivy-league elites who they think run their lives and care nothing about them. Their rage was on full display on January 6th. The urge to wreck offices, to smash things, to “hang Mike Pence”…to even take a crap in the capital is clear in all the videos (well, not the crap part).

If the Rich Men North of Richmond bust your union, ship your job overseas, give your kids shitty schools, and take away your healthcare, at some point, you will rise up. So many people have suffered these assaults that Trump could actually win a second term.

My teetering old friend Bob is not going to storm the Capital, but he is a symptom. He barely has healthcare and iffy government support. Yet we have more than 760 billionaires in this country and many major corporations that pay zero taxes through fancy accounting loopholes.

When I worked at Hewlett Packard, the “HP Way” was a company credo that spelled out HP values. One critical value was respect and support for the communities where we do business. Today, thanks to Jack Welch and others of his ilk, the main thing is “shareholder value.” Screw the workers and their unions, screw the community and “stakeholders.” Just shovel money to the executives and shareholders, to hell with everyone else.

That gives us Bob at the end of his life, and the possibility of another four years of Trump…and the end of our democracy. Just ask the leaders of North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, or Albania…they’ll tell you about the joys of autocracy.