Alien Romulus and the Theme of Powerlessness

This message comes from XL, providing an online learning environment intended to keep students skills sharp over summer vacation. The platform covers core subjects and adapts to each child's pace. Receive twenty percent off at xl dot com slash npr You are about to hear some deeply troubling allegations, allegations about a company that we should say does not provide financial support for NPR ere's our episod This is Planet Money from NPR We begin today with, I think truly, one of the most chilling earnings calls I have ever heard. Really disturbing. Andeople should know earnings calls generally, they're very welcome to Q three. Yeah, prorofitability, costs, stuff like that. But in this call, they throw to the CEO and it is very different, Ha, you wantan to hear it Bringing us to the earnings report on our deep space initiatives. Every corporation has a space fleet. Space fleet, off course. Every corporation has a space fleet. You know, Space fleet is a weird way to put the pivot to space, I suppose. But like, you know, I kind of follow. But because we were there first. Our profits have grown exponentially in less than a decade. I'm not a CEO coach, but like I'd sound less cartoonishly evil I sound like a super villain. This year The first of our research vessels are scheduled to return and with it bring back something that will keep our prophets well ahead of everyone Sounds like maybe a good investment, I'm not sure. Are you by? I'm by. The Weyland Yutani compomany, Greg? I think so. Weayland Yutani is a fictional company from. the film franchise Alien. Alien And Gre in case people don't know, the thing they have found in outer space that will bring great profitability Be a killer alien. Yes. double mouthed acid blooded xenomorph. You wantan to make a xenomorph s Can you Xenomorph Excellent, excellent. All right, so we've been talking about a fake company this whole time, The Weyland Uutani Corporation runs through the alien franchise and it is certainly a caricature of a futuristic conglomerate, but Greg and I will propose today. is that it is in fact the perfect vehicle to look at how we are living our lives today as workers and laborers in the modern economy. D Hello and welcome to Planet Money, I'm Kenny Malone. And I' Greg Rolski. The movie Alien is set ninety six years in a future where a single gargantuan company controls basically everything and employs seemingly everyone This proves to be bad for workers because they have no other options of course, but then even worse for workers when they are forced to onboard their company's newest team member slash profit center, which then you know, basically eats all of them except for. Pretty scary sci fi stuff, but you know what's scarier, Kenny What's that, Greg Rolski? More and more research suggests oursi non fi world has a lot more in common with the labor dynamics of alien than you might think. It's true. And look, we have planet money, see economics in everything. but on this one with Alien, we are not alone. Today on the show, you don't need a textbook to learn labor economics. You just need some clips from Alien and one of our leading labor economists to watch them whip us. Support for NPR comes from IBM. On Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell explores how organizations are using technology to solve complex challenges I spoke with Sergiie Gosch, Heineken's chief AI officer. If you can connect all the different applications, all the platforms, remove fragmentation, scale very quick, that's what we call the best connected growwer. That's where IBM is really partnering with Listen to Smart Talks with IBM wherever you get your podcasts This message comes from Schwab. With the new Schwab teen invvestor account, teens can gain hands on investing experience. It's co owned by you and your teen, so you can monitor the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at Swab d. com This message comes from LinkedIn. Owning a small business comes with a lot of challenges and means juggling multiple things at once. It's even harder to do it efficiently. But with LinkedIn, you get all the tools you need to grow in one place. With LinkedIn, simplify your sales, marketing and hiring so that you can actually run your small business. Learn more at linkedIn dot com slash planlanet Moneyhow Okay So today, we are going to spoil some parts of the forty seven year old movie Alien If you haven't seen it, come on people. We will also be spoiling some parts of the brand new book a wage standard, subtitled What's Wrong in the L labor Market and How to Fix it by economist Aron Debay, if you haven't read that, also, come on, what's wrong with you people? Spoilers all around. So we emailed Aron to say, you know what? We love your book, but you know what would be cool if we mostly interviewed about the movie Alien It's true. And then Earon wrote back to us and said basically The heck yeah. Pre pretty sure I watched Alien for the first time When I was in middle school, That's but very young. Yeah, it was very edgy. It's R rated, Aaron. Aaron is one of the most prominent labor economists working right now. He's at UMass Amherst, and he's probably best known for his research on the minimum wage. Aaron's been contributing to this growing body of work that shows higher minimum wages do not kill jobs the way economists used to think. But you could read all about that in Aaron's book. Yeah, yeah. backack to Alien. Let's get back to Alien. Yes. Do you remember feeling like they were worker rights issues at play That's like the first thing I thought of. I was like, o my gosh, told my friends. No, I think I was just like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm watching this. Yeah. If it just so happened that this is why you got into labor economics, that would have been a wonderful answer, but that's okay. You know, we can go with that because who knows? Yeah, who knows? becausecause there is genuinely a surprising amount of labor economics baked into the very core of this movie. So if you haven't seen it, allow us to briefly explain the setup, the basic setup of the film alien twentieth century Fox presents exterior shot. spaceship from a company called the Weyland Uutani Corporation. This is a space truck, essentially. It's hauling a bunch of ore from a mining planet back to Earth. But interior shot Computer screen The space trruck's computer picks up a mysterious signal, then wakes the entire crew from cryosleep cornbread. Now this crew, they're rough, they're tumble, they're blue collar space truckers. They wear tattered clothes and headbands. they work for, Weyland Uutani, and clearly would rather still be cry asleep.' dead. So yeah, that's the basic setup Yeah, yeah, that's right. What about that setup gets your labor economist senses tingling? So first of all These are not great jobs. These are tough jobs. Yeah. There's some serious negative Amenities as we say. Is that the term? That's the term. Yeah, that's the term. When you watch Alien with Aaron Dubeay, it's like the nerdiest DVD commentary ever. He spots all of these hugely important real world ideas from labor economics. And so we are going to watch Alien with Aaron Dubeay and learn about our world from his commentary Negative amenities, those are things that make a job less desirable An emergency room job, it may require overnight shifts. a construction job, It may come with the risk of injury. A space trucker job on a beat up old mining ship? yeah Erin immediately sees some likely negative amenities here. I know there's a few, but risk of death is probably like a pretty big one. Yes. I think that'sair. I think that's fair. It could be fun though, if life threatening, but definitely not good. I mean, they have to go into cryogenic sleep for many years. So you know, they're away from home for a long time. So negative, away from home for a long time, positive T to sleep on the job for a lot of the job. Yeah A job with lots of negative amenities is what Aaron calls a bad job. like that's a real term. Being a space trrucker for the company Whalle and Dutani High risk. When you have a job where there's a big risk You get something that's called compensating differential, you get paid more because to compensate for the risk Now that's if the labor market's working pretty well Aaron has some questions about how well the labor market is functioning in the year twenty one twenty two. You don't have to watch for very long to see the problems. Basically, the first scene of the movie Alien is all about work and pay and contracts And we queue that scene up to watch with Eron. All right E been ready? Yeah. Okaykay. sounds good. Here we go Okay, so in the scene, the crew they gather around this table, their captain tells them about this mysterious transmission and they've been woken up because their company, Weyland Yutani, needs them to go investigate that transmission transrmission? O here? Yeah. SOS. I don't know. Human I h to bring this up, but this is a commercial ship, not a rescue ship. Right. It's not my contract to do this kind of duty. If you want to me some contract Yeah let me pause there. Not in the contract. What's your reaction to that line? Well, you know, it's not in the contract. so if they They're told they have to do something It's not their contract. They should just quit it and get another job. You're being facetious because they're on a spaceship. Oh, no, no. Why is that gonna work Yes, H here is a giant clue. that the true monster of alien may be hiding in the labor dynamics, Greg, yes? Yeah, I mean, okay, so our crew, they live on a company ship, they sleep in a company cryos sleep chamber. They eat company cornbread, apparently. Functionally, our space trruckers live in a company town Now, what makes Alien a smarter econ movie than it needs to be is that it goes further than just saying like, o, the crew's trapped. therefore they must do what their company says. Instead, this scene keeps going And the crew is like, well, if we do this little side mission, we better get overtime or something. lets talk about those bon Sorry. canan I say something? Let's talk about the bonus. There is a clause in the contract. Okay, so that person who is, well, actually, there is a clause in the contract He's an Android. He represents the company, Weayland Dutani. He's a management chill Big Narark energy. There is a clause in the contract which specifically states any systematized transmission indicating a possible intelligent origin must be investigated. I to hear Bak, you just listen to the man Penalty of total forfeiture of shares That sounds bad. You got that? No money, he said. No money. I were going in. Yeah. going in. And not. Shut him up They're kind of forced into doing this mission because surprise, the company Weaylland Yutani has hidden a clause in everyone's contract Walk us through what a labor economist thinks watching that scene Yeah. so labor market' really competitive, the ability for companies to write contracts where there're sort of hidden risks, right? like hidden risk, alien calls, you have to go pick up, those would get priced out properly. And so you would get a bonus of some sort or get a higher pay. If the market's not particularly competitive, then that could easily be that there' shrouded We call it shrouded attributes. People have the unpleasant finding out ually your contract has things that you didn't fully factor in and you're kind of stuck with it. I mean, they don't know they're about to go be infected by a man eating super killer Yeah, I think the technical term is you're kind of screwed. I just want to say How wonderful it is that the inciting incident alien is a shrouded attribute. It's this little clause about a wildly risky job responsibility that Weyland Yutani did not need to price into its worker pay because they could just bury it in the contract. And the fact that Weyland Yutani could get away with this, that is the second big clue that our poor space truckers, they are not just dealing with a bad labor market. No, no, no. they're dealing with an infamous economic concept. A concept that could keep some labor economists up at night. A concept that We are actively avoiding saying Because yeah, we wanted Aaron to say it. Yeah, he says it well. Would you say that the thing we have not yet said is scarier or less scary than the Xenomorph, the alien. You know In eighth grade, not so much, but today Yeah, you know, like omorphs are not great, but monopsony Minopsy It's coming to get me. Burst it out of Kenny's chest. helpelp us. Well, I will say we are bursting with enthusiasm to talk about monopsonity Yes, because Planet Money standans will know that we love talking monopsony when we can. So of course, Monopoe is where there's one big company selling in a market. Monopsone is when there is one company buying a And you know the version we probably hear most often is about one company buying labor, hiring people. So only one company that people can go work for. And it certainly seems as if the corporation Weyland Yutani is operating with the power of a monopsony in the dystopian sci fi future of alien. Now, obviously, this is a crazy fantastical world far off in space with aliens xenomorphs and whatever. These sort of all powerful monoponies have existed in the real world mining towns that were owned and run by one company. And when there's only one employer, workers are how did Earon put it again? I just screwed Yes, one company real bad for workers. Of course, in a company town or you know, like there's going to be a monopson in power, whle in new tummy. But this is really much more endemic feature of the labor market than people have really understood As in, monopsony power is sneakily hiding all over our current labor market, even. when there is more than one company to go work for This This actually is the part that should land, like the economic version of a surprise alien bursting out of your colleague's chest, Greg. You wantanna go with that again? wait, am I the alien or the person? I guess The monopsony was hiding within us all along. That's the takeaway here. Yes. For decades, economists assumed that labor markets were mostly competitive and that monopsonies they could be treated like unicorns, you know, only found in rare circumstances Aaron and a growing number of economists, they're finding monopsonies. It's more kind of like a regular horse. Mopsony power, it's just like much more pervasive than previously thought. Yes, sure. Pervasive But the key here is that monopsony power that Earon and other researchers are finding, it's not obvious, like in old mining towns or future space mining companies. It's kind of with us now sneakily. So Earon walks us through how to spot what today's monopsony power looks like for us. I think the key thing is to start with like one is M anopsy power Monopony power means that Workers can't easily switch jobs and employers have some degree of choice of what kind of wages or what kind of working conditions to provide. Now, why do they have this choice? Why don't you have basically, I pay a little bit lower than the market wage. Everyone bols and is gone to the next best alternative. Why does that not happen? It not because we' we're stuck on spaceships. That's not the reason That's not the reason. That's like the fifth reason. But first because there may be concentrated markets. Concentrated markets. So maybe we don't yet have one giant Weyland Utani corporation running the world. but when you look at specific industries within specific geographies, some of those have been consolidating offering er and fewer employers for people to work for. As industries consolidate, employers tend to be able to reduce pay for workers. And one example Aaron points to in his book someomebody who is working in the skiing industry ski industry, you know, like twenty five years ago, there was a lot of small family owned hills Over the last twenty five, thirty years become very consolidated interest. Like for example, in Vermont, you could maybe go to the next one over and Hey, that's also owned by the same employer. You know, that right there is sort of a classic source of monopsony power that there may be less employers around than you may think for other kinds of work that you're doing. This seems to be true more broadly. Aarin points to one study that found typical American workers only have about three equal sized employers within driving distance for their particular employment field But even when you move to big cities where people have way more job options, Aaron's work has found that people simply do not quit a job for better paying jobs in the way that classic labor market theories would predict. Yeah, maybe they kind of like their commute or they're like, oh, I love my coworkers. I'll miss them if I leave, or you know, whatever And then there's the fact that chang of jobs is just a huge pain. what we call in economics search frictions employees actually have ulty finding out about applying for quitting and taking a new job, These are costly. it can be slow, it can be exhausting, and it can take a lot of effort, especially when you already have another job. And it's not just that changing jobs is annoying which it is, Aron says companies intentionally also harder for workers to jump ship and change jobs. Let's talk about this monopsony by artifics. Here's an example, non compete agreements so A third or more of American workers end up signing these. A third. Yeah. w. And by the way Sometimes it's argued that it's because to protect trade secrets, but then like, Jimmy John Sandwich chain Summer camp in Massachusetts, the examples go on, but it's basically a way to reduce competition for workers. What you're saying about the ways in which monopsony shows up, L surely we're not all stuck on a spaceship with a single employer controlling our entire life And what your research has shown is like Aren't we, though? in just littleler ways. That's right Jobs are sticky. Quitting is harder And as a result O working conditions and job quality are only partially determined by a well functioning market force. So yes aspects of exactly what doesn't work in a very dramatic way in aliens does afflict us in smaller but important ways. And the good news is we have ways of fix or improving those more so than in the movie perhaps Yeah, Earon says in the real world, we have ways to push back against monopsony power things like minimum wage laws, antitrust enforcement, and labor unions that fight for worker interests. And this is basically what Aaron's book is about. He says the erosion of those counterfces is a big reason we've seen a stagnation of worker pay and a rise in inequality That's in the real world, of course, but Aaron says he supposes those things would have helped in the movie alien too. Yeah, imagine if in the movie the employees of Waya Yutani were like in a really strong labor union or something, like one that we see in a lot of other countries where they hammer out worker protections for a whole sector of the economy And we if we had, for example, the sectoral spac Fuckers association Yeah, the S STA Yp, the SSTA. SSTA. And so when they start having these debates about what they should do. There's a big volume of SSTA you know contract that lays out our collective bargaining. And in fact, if they found out something they didn't really like, they would say, you know what? Let me call Let me talk to my shop Stuart. That scene would probably play out a little different, wouldn't it? It would stillertain be a really boring scene and then they would get fine We're not gonna to do it and then they're just gonna go back to Earth. The end. I don't know that that would be a boring scene.. Sound riveting to me, honestly. Agree. And so Planet money is proud to present the world premier Alien nineteen seventy nine labor economists cut. And we hear from someone with first handand knowledge of what it takes to make an actual alien movie How to nail the perfect balance of labor economics and killer aliens All of that. afterfter the break Support for NPR comes from IBM On Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell explores how organizations are using technology to solve complex challenges I spoke with Sergi Gosch, Heineken's chief AI officer. If you can connect all the different applications, all the platforms, remove fragmentation, scale very quick, that's what we call the best connected dwer. That's where IBM is really partner with Listen to Smart Talks with IBM wherever you get your podcasts This message comes from Schwab. With the new Schwab teen Investor account, teens can gain hands on investing experience. It's co owned by you and your teen, so you can monitor the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at Swab d. com This message comes from American Homeeshield It's not a matter of if an appliance or system like your HVac will break, but when? Without a home warranty, these repairs or replacements can cost thousands. But with an AHS home warranty, they will fix covered breakdowns, helping protect your wallet Get twenty percent off all plans at ahs dot com slash npR and see promo details. See ahs dot com slash contracts for coverage details, including service fees, limitations, and exclusions. The labor economist Aaron Dubay's cut of alien nineteen seventy nine It starts the same way. Spaceship Computer. Space shuckers wake up He was dead. But we asked Aaron Dubeay to tweak the labor conditions for a better worker outcome in alien. Aaron imagined instead, a future where the space truckers were part of some sectoral bargaining agreement, where there was a strong union and Here he thinks is how the opening of alien would have played out instead I don't know if you may have figured out we're not home yet intercepted a transmission of unknown origin. A transmission Out here? Yeah You gotta have to check it out. This is a commercial ship, not a rescue ship. Right. It's not my contract to do this kind of d. Allor right, can I say something? There is a clause in the contract which specifically states any systematized transmission indicating a possible intelligent origin, hold on. I think somebody's trying to say something in the back. Yeah, remember our grievance procedure, so I'm going to file that. and while it's being investigated, we actually can't go. That's part of the rule The end. Back to the cryos sleep.ess.' Back to cryos sleep we go. It's a YouTube short Okay Okay. Yes. ultimately, you cannot have alien without all these labor dynamics, the negative amenities, shrouded attributes, the monopsony. And I would contend that all of that rich texture is what makes this movie special and a huge part of what makes alien more than just another good horror There are now a bunch of alien movies and the best of those, they strike this delicate balance of space terror and smart economic themes. And we were unbelievably excited to get to talk to someone who has actually had to walk that econ horror tightrope I'm going to put you on the spot a little Do you Remember off the top of your head The first words that are spoken in your film, Alien Romulus First word spoken. Well that is u let me whver This is Fede Alvarez. He co wrote and directed the newest film in the Alien franchise I can give you the answer if you want Attentional workers. A attention all workers Yeah. Attention all workers. attttention all workers M shift starting in T minus fifteen We at planlet Money, we bring our economics lens to everything. But surely, we are not hallucinating that you also have chosen to put labor dynamics to some degree front and center here, yes Well I think all the when you're going to make an alaily movie, the first thing you do is trying to study what make the best iterations of this franchise. And I think if you look at the first one, you' given the second one and the third one, they're always talking about that. I mean, in a way the powerless the individual can be, you know in front of the machine This is kind of a big deal for us, Fere Alvarez, he's a very accomplished horror thriller director. He made his first films in Urguway. He co wrote and directed a huge hit in the United States called Don't Breathe. He also directed a reboot of The Evil Dead, which was freaking awesome and supposedly set a record for Gallons of fake blood used in a movie. Indeed Rain's fake blood. lotots of fake blood. And yeah, Greg and I, big Fette Alvarez fans, and clearly Fed knows that great alien movies need smart ideas about labor and work. He's not a labor economist though, So we wanted to talk to Fede about how he went about finding and building those smart ideas into his movie And Feddy told us he admittedly did not notice the econ in Alien at first, but later, when he was around age twenty, he started to understand that this movie,' saying something much bigger. You know, the movie stars and as soon as they're at the table They talk about the bonus situation and it's like right away. It's Yeah, yeah. It first thing we're in a contract. It's wild. It's the first thing they do and talk about the rights as workers. and But also they're not just talking about that. They talk about inequality as well. They're talking about why am I getting you know less money than you guys? And you know, and the capital goes like, you know, you got to get what you deserve And obviously's talking about when the monster comes, we' all got to be the same. we're all going to be equal. A actuallyually the capapitist one of the first ones to die And that shows how Death is that biger equalizer. So I am curious. We're gonna get a little economics here with your permission. Yes. of course. Okay, great Have you ever heard the term monopsony? Do this come across your radar? Oh no. Okay. becausecause you a thousand percent nail this perfectly in your movie What Okay, let us set this up for you if you haven't seen Fede's movie, Alien Romulus. In his alien, we actually start on a mining and farming planet, a colony entirely controlled by the corporation Weyland Utani. And it is, you know, bad. Workers are living some version of indentured servitude in a company town and just like in the original alien One of Fede's first scenes is simple yet stuffed with all kinds of huge labor economics Right, our protagonist, a young woman named Rain. She goes into Waylland Uutani's Office of Colony Affairs and she tries to submit some paperwork to get off this planet. You know, basasically she's trying to quit her job. Full name and occupation, please. Maria Rains Cing, ma'am and I should be free to go now. I'm sorry, but you're not eligible for contract release yet No No no, I reached the required hours. Unfortunately, quotas have been raised to twenty four thousand hours, so you'll be released from contract in another five to six years. Thank you and remember the company is really grateful for your ongoing service. This is a depiction of monopsony that could be taught in economics classes. The way that remote towns historically created this kind of trapped labor force, the way company towns infamously had so much control that workers had to use fake company money to buy things from their company stores using company scripts We asked Fede if he and his co writer, Rodos Sayages, had researched case studies to get this right. And he was like Yeah, but Also, It's a bit more intuitive than that And it's also about early on in the movie, setting up what he thinks is the ultimate theme of a good alien movie general powerlessness. And in the case of alien is always the waying Yani, represents the government. It can be literally that in the stories, but it's also, you know, how you feel powerless versus something that cannot be destroyed that seems to you cannot negotiate with. that seems that it's relentless I think that's why I think the best ones they always start there. they get the audience, they draw them in perspective of, you know Ebody knows how it feels to be in that place and be feel powerless. I've read a few quotes from you about this as an Uruguayan. Exactly. ye. Yeah, you said things like growing up under a dictatorship in a developing country, that there is a feeling may seem specific but is universal about sort of a lack of options for you as a young person. Yeah. I mean, ironically, at the same time Yes, Uruguay, by being born in a dictatorship, like my parents had is a mentality in a way of a survival instinct that came from being born in that environment where you didn't have a lot of choices and now If you grew a beard, you will get arrested. But at the same time, that've been said There's also the other side of it is when I moved to the United States, when I make people dead my first film and I moved here, I was like, wait a second, you guys don't have like likeike vacation salary, like you don't have like guarantee thirty days of vacation every year. and people were like, what are you talking about? You have to work. And I was like, what is this dystopian? So you know, Ugay, we have healthcare free healthcare. and you know, particularly in the employer dynamics, if you get hired by a company