Byron Watson and Welfare

Listen to "Welfare Cheese" by Emanuel Lasky (1963)


Did you catch these lyrics?


"Calling Mr. Kennedy
Its an emergency
Hand me some of that welfare cheese"

Read the following excerpt from a blog about growing up on welfare:


I was raised on welfare. I was raised using food stamps, government healthcare, and eating government cheese. Like many other families my parents divorced when I was young and my father never paid child support. My mom was left to raise four children – alone. So what was she expected to do? Of course depend on the government. It's their obligation to care for people in situations such as these, right? The government distributed small checks, food stamps, cheese, and limited healthcare but the price was your self-worth, pride, and dignity.
My family finally broke out of poverty when I was in my teens. I often ask my mother how she broke out of poverty. She tells me that welfare and all of the government services were helpful but the longer she was on them the more life they would suck out of her. The welfare cycle is hopeless, helpless, and creates and unhealthy dependence upon the government. So what did she do to get free?

One of the keys for her was her sister, my aunt. She told my mom that if she did not find some way to get off welfare that her kids would most likely follow in her footsteps. Painful as that conversation might have been, it was just what the doctor ordered. My mom continued to work jobs that did not pay too well . She returned to school, received her diploma, and began to take some college courses.



Do you think Byron was right to feel so strongly about the cheese?


What do you think it says about the times that there was a popular song titled Welfare Cheese?