Why We Build the Wall
The War on Poverty Is a Forever War
lukask
When I took my seat at the Walter Kerr Theater to see Hadestown on Broadway, I expected to see powerful singing and great acting. What I didn’t see coming was powerful commentary on poverty and social justice. Hadestown is a reinterpretation of the Greek myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and Persephone and Hades. One of its most powerful songs, “Why We Build The Wall,” has stayed with me. It offers keen insight into poverty, its persistence, and our attitudes towards the poor, in America as in many other countries around the world.
In a chilling call and response between Hades and the “workers” imprisoned in the underworld (or in low-wage jobs), Hades sings:
Why do we build the wall, my children, my children?
Why do we build the wall?
The workers regurgitate the propaganda they’ve been forced to absorb.
[ALL TOGETHER]
Why do we build the wall?
We build the wall to keep us free
That’s why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
[HADES]
How does the wall keep us free, my children, my children?
How does the wall keep us free?
[ALL TOGETHER]
How does the wall keep us free?
The wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That’s why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
[HADES]
Who do we call the enemy, my children, my children?
Who do we call the enemy?
[ALL TOGETHER]
Who do we call the enemy?
The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That’s why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
[HADES]
What do we have that they should want, my children, my children?
What do we have that they should want?
[ALL TOGETHER]
What do we have that they should want?
We have a wall to work upon
We have work and they have none
[HADES]
And our work is never done
My children, my children
And the war is never won
[ALL TOGETHER]
The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That’s why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
We build the wall to keep us free
So here we come to it: the enemy is poverty. But not, as we might hope, are we trying to defeat poverty itself. This war is against, and the wall is built to keep out the people living in poverty.
We are at war with poverty.
The war is never won.
The work is never done. As long as we live in a system designed to keep people in poverty instead of enabling them to escape it.
Talk of a war that is never won is Orwellian. As George Orwell wrote in his classic, dystopian novel, 1984:
“Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war...war had literally been continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil.”
The authoritarian state continuously reminded its subjects that they were at war. The enemy changed, but war was constant. This is the story of America in the late 20th and early 21st century: Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Kosovo, and now Denmark?! The Trump administration even engaged in sabre-rattling with Canada, our longtime (and peaceful) ally.
[HADES]
What do we have that they should want, my children, my children?
What do we have that they should want?
[ALL TOGETHER]
What do we have that they should want?
We have a wall to work upon
We have work and they have none
The labor to build the wall is clearly exploitative: workers can’t just walk out of Hades, and they are paid poorly, if at all. They will never be able to finish their work building the wall, and this fact justifies the work to build the wall. It is an infinite loop.
Poverty is not an accident, or an unintentional byproduct of our economic system. Poverty is an essential ingredient. Showing mercy (via public benefits) is seen by some as a threat to the economic order, suggesting that no one will be motivated to work if they receive any kind of assistance.
In “How Long,” a song in Act II of Hadestown, Hades’ wife Persephone tries to convince him to let Orpheus–who has come to Hades to rescue Eurydice–leave Hades and take Eurydice back with him. Hades knows he can’t afford to let anyone out of his servitude.
Give them a piece, they’ll take it all
Show them a crack, they’ll tear down the wall
Lend them an ear and the kingdom will fall
So how does the wall keep us free? It gives us “what they have not”: namely, work. What kind of work? Work to build the wall. The wall that keeps out the enemy (poverty), also gives us work, for which we get paid, which staves off poverty. It is not hard to see the circularity: the war on poverty is a forever war. We are caught in an infinite loop. Note that most of the programs in America designed to fight poverty begin as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. In the decades since, the War on Poverty has morphed into the War on the Poor, with social program policies designed to be antagonistic, by creating and frequently increasing rules that are both arduous and often nonsensical, that punish individuals who receive public benefits instead of simply helping them. For example:
Counting cars and burial plots as “assets” to demonstrate that people who request nutrition assistance don’t actually need the money
Requiring individuals who are unable to work because of disability or familial responsibilities to prove they are working or looking for a job
Refusing people receiving nutrition benefits to buy hot food, such as a rotisserie chicken, at the grocery store because it won’t be prepared at home
Architecture that prevents unhoused people from lying down on a park bench to get some rest during the day
Laws prohibiting “camping” in public places designed to criminalize homelessness, and violent clearing of encampments during which people’s belongings are thrown in the garbage.
And the list goes on.
Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage remains a mere $7.25 per hour, and has not been increased since 2009. (Some states have higher minimum wages.) Meanwhile, the costs of housing, food, health care, and child care are soaring, For example, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) reported in February 2025 that food prices rose 23.6% from 2020 to 2024. Likewise, the cost of housing rose 23%, and health insurance premium tax credits through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are set to double or triple for many Americans, since Congress let the ACA premium subsidies expire.
At the same time, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBBA) made the largest cuts in US history to SNAP and Medicare. The US Department of Agriculture is testing out different ways of requiring states to recertify all of their SNAP applications, an arduous and time-consuming process that may result in millions of families being cut off of assistance due to paperwork issues. The most devastating provision of OBBBA–requiring states to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars annually towards the cost of SNAP benefits–is about to kick in in many states. This will devastate state budgets, forcing them to make impossible choices, and may lead to states opting out of SNAP entirely, which could cut off tens of millions of Americans from essential food assistance they need to feed their children.
But there is also a suggestion of the fear of contagion. Like the wall Trump wants to build along our southern border, Hades builds a wall to keep out the enemy (“poverty”) but we know it means poor people. We don’t want the poor among us because we don’t want their destitution to rub off on us.
In America, we restrict new arrivals from receiving public assistance, disqualifying most non-citizens from receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program entirely. After the welfare reform bill (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA)) passed in 1996, most non-citizens could apply for SNAP only after a five-year waiting period from their date of entry into the United States. Meanwhile, new immigrants are not allowed to work in the United States until they attain a Green Card (making them Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs), making it awfully difficult to earn the money they need to buy themselves and their families food. Add in the ICE reign of terror, and non-citizens in the United States (here legally or not) are living a nightmare.
Lately, the Trump administration has been targeting Minnesota and its Governor Tim Walz, threatening to freeze funding for SNAP and other food assistance programs, specifically singling out Somali immigrants in the midwestern state, with vitriolic and vile language. ICE agents, who have been terrorizing American citizens and immigrants alike, have even detained Native Americans. ICE has been out of control, and the American public has taken to the streets to protest, making it clear that most of us do not support ICE tactics. But immigration policy has been a flashpoint for so long in America because of our scarcity mindset, and politicians’ tendency to exploit that to turn us against immigrants as the source of all of our struggles, no matter how far from the truth that is. (Hint: it’s actually the billionaires.)
As Hades would tell us, we can take care of the poor, refugees, and so on, when the war is won. But “the war is never won!” If we keep doing things the way we’re doing them now, nothing will change. Economic oppression–where people have to work to stay alive–will continue forever. This is not to say that we should end anti-poverty programs. But we must recognize that we will not win this “war” on our current path. We must design policies that have the ultimate goal of lifting people out of poverty, housing the homeless, and ensuring that everyone has dignified, reliable access to all basic needs. And yes, we must include immigrants in this. And work with other countries to help them address their own poverty (instead of kidnapping their presidents.)
The cause of poverty is billionaire corporate CEOs hoarding their wealth while paying poverty wages. As Orpheus sings to his fellow residents (captives?) of HadesTown:
“I believe that with each other, we are stronger than we know [“than they know”]
“I believe that we are many, I believe that they are few…”
“And it isn’t for the few to tell the many what is true.” (“If It’s True”, “HadesTown”
Fighting poverty is an ultramarathon. It can feel endless, and it can be easy to lose hope.
But in the words of Ursula K. LeGuin: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. But then, so did the divine right of kings.”
In “Our Lady of the Underground,” Persephone offers us hope as well:
Wipe away your tears, brother
Brother, I know how you feel
I can see you’re blinded by the sadness of it all
But look a little closer and
Everything will be revealed
Look a little closer and
There’s a crack in the wall!
We’ll get there. We just have to keep tearing down that wall, brick by brick.
What poignant reflections, Randy. I sat here for a moment, pausing in between the lines, pondering as I felt them.
We must not give up.
Wow. Insightful post, Randy. Thank you.