The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enough
6/19/202632 min
Maybe the real monster in the Alien franchise isn’t actually the killer alien. Because behind the acid blood and jump scares is an even more insidious horror: a single employer with unchecked power. That employer is named Weyland-Yutani, a mega-corporation that dominates workers across the galaxy.
Weyland-Yutani is a sort of extreme example of what economists call a monopsony — when one employer dominates a labor market and gains power to underpay and mistreat workers. Sure, it’s science fiction. But a growing number of economists argue that monopsony power is a much bigger deal in the real world than previously thought.
We watch scenes from the movie Alien with labor economist Arin Dube, whose new book, The Wage Standard, shines a spotlight on the problem of monopsony power in the modern economy. We ask Arin what policy ideas he has that would have maybe prevented the worker tragedy seen in Alien. And we use his answer to try and rewrite the movie (spoiler: the movie becomes much shorter and less exciting).
Plus, we speak with Fede Álvarez, the director and co-writer of Alien: Romulus, which puts Weyland-Yutani’s poor treatment of workers front row and center.
For more on monopsony and anti-trust:
- The labor economics of 'Alien' — and its lessons for inequality on Earth (PM newsletter)
- The hidden power keeping wages low (PM newsletter)
- Antitrust In America (PM series)
- How we got free agents in baseball (PM episode)
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Today's episode of Planet Money was hosted by Greg Rosalsky and Kenny Malone. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Our executive producer is Alex Goldmark.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Kenny Malone· Host0:14
You are about to hear some deeply troubling allegations, allegations about a company that we should say does not provide financial support for NPR. Here's our episode. This is Planet Money from NPR. We begin today with, I, I think truly one of the most chilling earnings calls I have ever heard.
Greg Rosalsky· Host0:38
Really disturbing stuff.
Kenny Malone· Host0:39
And people should know earnings calls generally, they're very welcome to Q3.
Greg Rosalsky· Host0:43
Yeah, profitability, costs, stuff like that.
Kenny Malone· Host0:46
But in this call, they throw to the CEO and it is very different here. You wanna hear it?
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:51
Bringing us to the earnings report on our deep space initiatives. Every corporation has a space fleet.
Greg Rosalsky· Host0:56
Space fleet. Of course, every corporation has a space fleet.
Kenny Malone· Host0:59
You know, space fleet is a weird way to put the pivot to space, I suppose. But like- [laughs] ... you know, I kind of follow.
Speaker 4· Soundbite1:05
But because we were there first, our profits have grown exponentially in less than a decade.
Kenny Malone· Host1:10
I'm not a CEO coach, but like- I, I'd sound less cartoonishly evil maybe [laughs] Yeah, don't sound like a super villain.
Speaker 4· Soundbite1:17
This year, the first of our research vessels are scheduled to return, and with it, they'll bring back something that will keep our profits well ahead of everyone.
Greg Rosalsky· Host1:28
Sounds like maybe a good investment,