song for theme #49A: Social Welfare Statism

“Building The Common Welfare” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by N. Whitfield and B. Strong / Marvin Gaye

 I’m tired of hearing you

Talking ‘bout the free lunch crew¹

Putting down the welfare state²

Jesus preached love, not hate

If your son was hungry poor,

Would you slam the kitchen door?

Building the common welfare

To lift up some, we must share

Building the common welfare

Someday you may need our care

Please don’t you bitch to me

‘Bout that housing subsidy³

Valuing your tax dollar

Putting down those in squalor

If your daughter was homeless,

Would you ignore her duress?

 Building the common welfare

To lift up some, we must share

Building the common welfare

Someday you may need our care

You put down markets not free

And social security⁴

You’d shred the safety net

On big business stake your bet

Damn your socialism scare!

We need national health care!⁵

Building the common welfare

To lift up some, we must share

Building the common welfare

Someday you may need our care

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—Free lunch is often applied to poor people using state provided welfare program services.  The more general economics term is

     free rider, where people benefit from resources and services they don’t pay for.

2—At the heart of such governments is a commitment to welfare assistance in the form of monetary or other help with services

      designed to provide an economic or social safety net for those disadvantaged members of society who are unable to support

      themselves.  Eligibility is determined by income below the poverty level and other “means tests.”  Recipients may be required

      to demonstrate that they are seeking employment or have enrolled in job training.

3—This refers to tax dollars going to provide affordable housing to the poor in government owned structures

4—The USA social insurance program for the elderly and disabled established during the New Deal era.

5—The last two lines refer to the debate over the USA health care insurance compromise known as “The Affordable Care Act”

       passed in 2010.  Opponents fought against this legislation, which builds on the existing private insurance/health care provider

       system, by charging that the new scheme, in which all people would eventually be required to have health care insurance,

       amounted to “socialism.” At the other extreme were those who unsuccessfully sought to expand the widely popular

       government administered Medicare program so that everyone would be eligible—not just those of age 65 and over! 

 Comment: Being poor, a recipient of government welfare aid, and a believer in this theme leaves one open to attacks questioning one’s character, work ethic, etc. This song provides emotional armor against that.

The government “safety net” that supposedly social welfare states have in place to catch those in need (who might otherwise fall into some oblivion of suffering), employs what many see as a psychologically comforting metaphor for those struggling to cope. Critics charge that the safety net is full of holes punched by those who wish to gut the welfare system.