The Rich Men North Of Richmond Rorschach Test

<p>It&rsquo;s usually a bad sign when someone speaks (or writes) with total confidence, but I&rsquo;m totally confident you hadn&rsquo;t heard of country music megastar Oliver Anthony until a couple of weeks ago.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m guessing some of you are only discovering him now.</p> <p>In just two weeks, Anthony (whose real name is Chris Lunsford) went from total obscurity to millions of followers on social media, his debut single,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><em>Rich Men North of Richmond</em></a><em>&nbsp;</em>(a reference to politicians in Washington D.C.), rocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and he was even the subject of a question during last week&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/25/rich-men-north-of-richmond-oliver-anthony-republicans" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Republican Primary debate</a>.</p> <p>Anthony&rsquo;s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. And if you listen to the&nbsp;<a href="https://genius.com/Oliver-anthony-rich-men-north-of-richmond-lyrics" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">first few lines of his song</a>, you could be forgiven for thinking it&rsquo;s just a simple, Bible Belt-friendly song, about the economic and political frustrations of America:</p> <blockquote> <p>I&rsquo;ve been sellin&rsquo; my soul, workin&rsquo; all day,<br /> Overtime hours for bullshit pay,<br /> So I can sit out here and waste my life away,<br /> Drag back home and drown my troubles away.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s a damn shame what the world&rsquo;s gotten to,<br /> For people like me and people like you,<br /> Wish I could just wake up and it not be true,<br /> But it is, oh, it is.</p> </blockquote> <p>According to the latest&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pymnts.com/study/reality-check-paycheck-to-paycheck-inflation-household-spending-shared-expenses/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">LendingClub report</a>, 61% of Americans are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/31/61percent-of-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-even-as-inflation-cools.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">living paycheck to paycheck</a>. 52% work more than 40 hours a week&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/6168310/overtime-pay-history/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">without getting overtime pay</a>. 49% rely on credit cards to cover&nbsp;<a href="https://inside1031.com/credit-card-debt-2021/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">essential living expenses</a>. And that&rsquo;s before we even talk about the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-frightening-cost-of-living-in-the-u-s-a-price-index-review/142843/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">cost of living crisis</a>&nbsp;or the decade-long fight for a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_for_$15" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">liveable minimum wage</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/illumination-curated/the-rich-men-north-of-richmond-rorschach-test-15e6dffc34f7"><strong>Click Here</strong></a></p>