I'd say he pretty much nailed it

[Nzoner]

27 years ago the lyrics below were released on The Rainmakers debut album.Bob Walkenhorst has always had a way with words and when it comes to his song Government Cheese I'd say he pretty much nailed it.

"Give a man a free house and he'll bust out the windows
Put his family on food stamps, now he's a big spender
no food on the table and the bills ain't paid
'Cause he spent it on cigarettes and P.G.A.
They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please
They're feeding our people that Government Cheese

Give a man a free lunch and he'll figure out a way
To steal more than he can eat 'cause he doesn't have to pay
Give a woman free kids and you'll find them in the dirt
Learning how to carry on the family line of work
It's the man in the White House, the man under the steeple
Passing out drugs to the American people
I don't believe in anything, nothing is free
They're feeding our people the Government Cheese

Decline and fall, fall down baby
Decline and fall, said fall way down now
Decline and fall, fall down little mama
Decline and fall, decline and fall

Give a man a free ticket on a dead end ride
And he'll climb in the back even though nobody's driving
Too god**** lazy to crawl out of the wreck
And he'll rot there while he waits for the welfare check
Going to hell in a handbag, can't you see
I ain't gonna eat no Government Cheese"

[nstygma]

Originally Posted by mcan

make it VERY difficult to become a billionaire.

a little over 400 people in this country are billionaires. don't you want everyone to do well?

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by mcan

You want to see welfare queens get jobs? Here's your answer: Don't tax anyone who makes less than $50K a year, then ramp up heavily to make up the difference. Make HAVING a job at all an incentive. Welfare people can "squeak out" their living, but if you have a job you're gonna be doing alright. And that first big raise is gonna be BIG DEAL. Ideally you want people in the low $100Ks to not be paying much more than they do now. But once you get into millionaire territory, make it VERY difficult to become a billionaire.

This sounds backwards to me.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Sounds exactly like the guy who just lost an election.



Romney sure is right, isn't he?

You are deluded. This is the face of entitlement America.

http://youtu.be/a780LGWG7to

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

You are deluded. This is the face of entitlement America.

http://youtu.be/a780LGWG7to

That's the face of satire, but she makes a good point about the existence of an entitlement culture. My daughter has a friend that turned 18 last December but is finishing out her last year of High School. I was taking both of them around to grab job applications a few weeks ago. At one of the businesses they had to wait for about ten minutes to be seen by one of the managers. When they got back in my car the friend said, "We shouldn't have had to wait, you're not supposed to make customers wait like that!" I made eye contact with my daughter and gave her one of those looks. She just kind of rolled her eyes and shook her head.

[KCWolfman]

Her song was satire. Her explanation and detailed accounting of how to split government money for child care with a friend was nothing short of a big "**** You" to the American Taxpayer.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

Her song was satire. Her explanation and detailed accounting of how to split government money for child care with a friend was nothing short of a big "**** You" to the American Taxpayer.

I don't think her explanation was the big **** you. I took it as she was commenting on how the system is abused.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by listopencil

I don't think her explanation was the big **** you. I took it as she was commenting on how the system is abused.

I believe the verb you should have chose was "praising" instead of "commenting". That would have been more accurate.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

I believe the verb you should have chose was "praising" instead of "commenting". That would have been more accurate.

I dug around a little bit. The girl goes by the name of "Chapter." Here's a chunk of text from an interview that was linked on her website:

How would you describe the Chapter Artist brand of music?

My brand of music is reality, its storytelling, its acting, its full of satire and varied types of messages. I tap into different roles and different types of characters to get my message across.

Your single “It’s Free, Swipe Your EBT” has received over 200,000 hits on YouTube. Was your intent to poke fun at the ways people abuse EBT or how easy it is to get government assistance? What do you hope to gain from the success of the song?

When I put that song out I just thought people would laugh about it. I never imagined that the type of backlash that has occurred would even take place. I came up with the idea to paint a picture to people as an exaggeration. The song is actually a reflection of my childhood in that my mother had multiple kids and was abusing government assistance. Once everybody hears the album they’ll get the whole picture but I don’t want people to discredit my talent because of this song. I write and produce my own music, I direct my own videos…I’m a very talented person and this song is just a small piece of what my entire album is about.

I’m definitely not judging anybody and I don’t hold any resentment toward my mother but I want people to know that you have to treat your kids with respect not just like a paycheck. You never know, one day that child might grow up and write a song about it.

[listopencil]

KCWolfman: I didn't intend to be overbearing on this particular issue but that EBT song intrigued me when I first heard it a while back. It's a song that can be interpreted in different ways depending on your viewpoint, I guess.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by listopencil

I dug around a little bit. The girl goes by the name of "Chapter." Here's a chunk of text from an interview that was linked on her website:

How would you describe the Chapter Artist brand of music?

My brand of music is reality, its storytelling, its acting, its full of satire and varied types of messages. I tap into different roles and different types of characters to get my message across.

Your single “It’s Free, Swipe Your EBT” has received over 200,000 hits on YouTube. Was your intent to poke fun at the ways people abuse EBT or how easy it is to get government assistance? What do you hope to gain from the success of the song?

When I put that song out I just thought people would laugh about it. I never imagined that the type of backlash that has occurred would even take place. I came up with the idea to paint a picture to people as an exaggeration. The song is actually a reflection of my childhood in that my mother had multiple kids and was abusing government assistance. Once everybody hears the album they’ll get the whole picture but I don’t want people to discredit my talent because of this song. I write and produce my own music, I direct my own videos…I’m a very talented person and this song is just a small piece of what my entire album is about.

I’m definitely not judging anybody and I don’t hold any resentment toward my mother but I want people to know that you have to treat your kids with respect not just like a paycheck. You never know, one day that child might grow up and write a song about it.

In the interview, if you watched it, she very clearly states the process in which to get as much as you can for no work whatsoever. She concludes with the statement [sic] Why would anyone work when you can get so much for free?

This wasn't a character, it wasn't satire, it was a clear explanation of a mindset of those who can get something for nothing, off the backs of others.

Is it her mindset? Is it her desire? I don't know, she never states in the interview that the process she describes is wrong. I draw my conclusions from the interview given, not from an assumption of what satire could be.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by listopencil

KCWolfman: I didn't intend to be overbearing on this particular issue but that EBT song intrigued me when I first heard it a while back. It's a song that can be interpreted in different ways depending on your viewpoint, I guess.

Oh, I agree. Satire always works that way, and good satire stabs at both sides (like this one does).

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

In the interview, if you watched it, she very clearly states the process in which to get as much as you can for no work whatsoever. She concludes with the statement [sic] Why would anyone work when you can get so much for free?

This wasn't a character, it wasn't satire, it was a clear explanation of a mindset of those who can get something for nothing, off the backs of others.

Is it her mindset? Is it her desire? I don't know, she never states in the interview that the process she describes is wrong. I draw my conclusions from the interview given, not from an assumption of what satire could be.

It looked to me like she was in character during the interview.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by listopencil

It looked to me like she was in character during the interview.

Possibly. But every statement she gave was accurate. Character or not.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by listopencil

KCWolfman: I didn't intend to be overbearing on this particular issue but that EBT song intrigued me when I first heard it a while back. It's a song that can be interpreted in different ways depending on your viewpoint, I guess.

Not really. I don't see how anyone would see that song as anything but critical of people abusing the system and mocking them.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

Oh, I agree. Satire always works that way, and good satire stabs at both sides (like this one does).

That's really completely not true. "Good" satire doesn't need to stab at both sides. However, good satire will fool people who don't "get it" into thinking that it isn't satire. Like conservatives who think the Colbert Report is really making fun of liberals.