The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enough

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 think truly, one of the most chilling earnings calls I have ever heard. Really disturbing stuff. And people should know, earnings calls generally, they're very, welcome to Q3. Yeah, profitability, costs, stuff like that. But in this call, they throw to the CEO and it is very different here. You want to hear it? Bringing us to the earnings report on our deep space initiatives. Every corporation has a space fleet. Space fleet, of course. 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, maybe. Yeah, don't sound like a super villain. 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. Sounds like maybe a good investment. I'm not sure. Are you buy on the Weyland-Yutani company, Greg? I think so. Weyland-Yutani is a fictional company from the film franchise Alien. Mm-hmm, Alien. And Greg, in case people don't know, we're going to be talking about Alien. In case people don't know, the thing they have found in outer space that will bring great profitability. Could it be a killer alien? Yes, double-mouthed, acid-blooded xenomorph. Mm-hmm. You want to make a xenomorph sound? Can you do xenomorph? Excellent, excellent. All right, so we've been talking about a fake company this whole time. The Weyland-Yutani corporation runs through the Alien franchise. And it is certainly a caricature of a futuristic conglomerate. But what 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. Dun-dun-dun! Hello, and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Kenny Malone. And I'm Greg Rosalski. The movie Alien is set 96 years in a future where a single gargantuan company controls basically everything and employs seemingly everyone. This proves to be bad. Not 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 one. It's pretty scary sci-fi stuff. But you know what's scarier, Kenny? Oh, what's that, Greg Rosalski? More and more research suggests our sci-non-fi world has a lot more in common with the labor dynamics of Alien. Yeah. Than you might think. It's true. And look, we at 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 whips. Okay. So today, we are going to spoil some parts of the 47-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, The Wage Standard, subtitled What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It, by economist Aaron Dubé. And if you haven't read that, also, come on, what's wrong with you, people? Spoilers all around. So we emailed Aaron to say, you know what? We love your book, but you know what would be cool? If we mostly interviewed. We interviewed about the movie Alien. It's true. And then Aaron wrote back to us and said, basically, heck, yeah. Pretty sure I watched Alien for the first time when I was in middle school. That's 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 can read all about that in Aaron's book. Yeah, yeah. Back to Alien. Let's get back to Alien. Yes. Do you remember feeling like there were worker rights issues at play? That was like the first thing I thought of. I was like, oh my gosh, told my friends. No, I think I was just like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm watching this. If it just so happened that this is why you got into labor economics, that would have been a one. Wonderful answer, but that's okay. You know, we can go with that, because who knows? Yeah, who knows? Because 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. 20th Century Fox presents. Exterior shot. Spaceship from a company called the Weyland-Yutani 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 truck's computer picks up a mysterious signal, then wakes the entire crew from cryosleep. I am cold. You have some 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-Yutani and clearly would rather still be a cryosleep. I feel 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 Dubé, it's like the nerdy. 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 Dubé and learn about our world from his commentary. So, 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. Immediately seize 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's fair to say. 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, get to sleep on the job for a lot of the job. A job with lots of negative amenities. Is what Aaron calls a bad job. Like, that's a real term. And being a space trucker for the company Whale and Dutani? Bad job. High risk. When you have a job where there's a big risk, you get something that's called compensating differential. And you get paid more because to compensate for the risk. Now, that's if the labor market's working pretty well. Yeah. Aaron has some questions about how well the labor market is functioning in the year 21-22. Mm-hmm. You don't have to watch for. 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 cue that scene up to watch with Aaron. All right, everyone ready? Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. Here we go. Okay, so in this 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, Whale and Dutani, it needs them to go investigate that transmission. A transmission? Out here? Yeah. SOS. I don't know. Human. Unknown. I hate to bring this up, but this is a commercial ship, not a rescue ship. Right. And it's not in my contract to do this kind of duty. Nope. If you want to give me some money. Not in the 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 are told they have to do something, it's not their contract, they should just quit and get another job. You're being facetious because they're on a spaceship. Oh, no! I was like, Yes, 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 cryo-sleep chamber, they eat company cornbread, apparently. Functionally, our space truckers 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, oh, 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. Can we just talk about the bonus? I'm sorry, can 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, Weyland-Yutani. He's a management shill. Big narc energy. There is a clause in the contract which specifically states, any systematized transmission indicating a possible intelligent origin must to be investigated. I will hear it. Michael, will you just listen to the man? On penalty of total forfeiture of shares. That sounds bad. You got that? No money, he said. No money. All right, we're going in. Yeah, we're going in. And that shut him up. They're kind of forced into doing this mission because, surprise, the company Weyland-Yutani has hidden a clause in everyone's contract. So just walk us through what a labor economist thinks watching that scene. Yeah, so if the labor market's really competitive, the ability for companies to write contracts where there's sort of hidden risks, right? Like hidden risk, alien calls, do 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. But if the market's not particularly competitive, then that could easily be that there's shrouded, we call it shrouded attributes. People. have the unpleasant finding out that actually 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. Now, I just want to say how wonderful it is that the inciting incident of 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 laborers, 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 xenomorphs are not great, but monopsony. Ah, monopsony! Oh, monopsony, it's coming to get me! It bursted out of Kenny's chest. Help us! Well, I will say we are bursting with enthusiasm to talk about monopsony, yes? Because Planet Money Stans will know that we love talking monopsony when we can. So, of course, monopoly is where there's one big company selling in a market. Monopsony is when there is one company buying in a market. 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's certainly, 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 and xenomorphs and whatever. But these sort of all-powerful monopsonies have existed in the real world, like mining towns that were owned and run by one company. And when there's only one employer, workers are, how did Aaron put it? Again, kind of screwed. Yes. One company, real bad for workers. Of course, in a company town or, you know, like there's going to be monopsony power, Weyland-Yutani. But this is really a 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. And 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 want to go with that again? Ah! Wait, am I the alien or the person? Ah! I guess I was wrong. 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. But Aaron and a growing number of economists are finding monopsony is more kind of like a regular horse. Monopsony power, it's just like much more pervasive than previously thought. Yes, sure. Pervasive, but the key here is that monopsony power that Aaron 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 Aaron walks us through how to spot what today's monopsony power looks like for us. I think that the key, the key thing is to start with the, like what is monopsony power? Monopsony 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 bolts and is gone to the next best alternative. Why does that not happen? It's not because we're stuck on spaceships. 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-Yutani corporation running the world. But when you look at specific industries within specific geographies, some of those have been consolidating, offering fewer 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, somebody who is working in the skiing industry. Ski industry, you know, like 25 years ago, there was a lot of small family-owned hills. But over the last 25, 30 years, it's become very consolidated. Like, for example, in Vermont, you could maybe go to the next one over. And hey, that's also owned by the same employer. But, 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. And so, you know, there's a lot of people for the kinds of work that you're doing. This seems to be true more broadly. Aaron 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 changing jobs is just a huge pain. What we call in economics, search frictions. That employees actually have difficulty 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. Aaron says companies intentionally also make it harder for workers to jump ship and change jobs. I talk about this monopsony by artifice. Here's an example. Non-compete agreements. So a third or more of American workers end up signing these. A third? Yeah. Wow. And by the way, sometimes it's argued that it's because to protect trade secrets. But then, like, Jimmy John's 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, like, 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 littler ways? That's right. So jobs are sticky. Quitting is harder. And as a result, our working conditions and job quality are, you know, we're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're only partially determined by a well-functioning market force. So yes, there's aspects of exactly what doesn't work in a very dramatic way in Alien does afflict us in smaller but important ways. And the good news is we have ways of fixing or improving those more so than in the movie, perhaps. Yeah. Aaron 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 counterforces 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, like imagine if in the movie, the employees of Weyland-Yutani were like in a really strong labor union. Like one that we see in a lot of other countries where they hammer out worker protections for a whole sector of the economy. So if we had, for example, the Sectoral Space Truckers Association. Yeah. The S-S-T-A. Yep, the S-S-T-A. The S-S-T-A. And so when they start having these debates about what they should do, there's a big volume of S-S-T-A, you know, contract that lays out our collective bargaining. And in fact, In fact, if they found out something they didn't really like, they would say, you know what? Let me talk to my shop steward. That scene would probably play out a little different, wouldn't it? It would sort of be a really boring scene. And then they would say, OK, fine, we're not going to do it. And then they're just going to go back to Earth. The end. I don't know that that would be a boring scene, Greg. Sounds riveting to me, honestly. Agree. And so Planet Money is proud to present the world premiere of Alien 1979, The Labor Economist's Cut. And we hear from someone with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to make an actual alien movie and how to nail the perfect balance of labor economics and killer aliens. All of that after the break. The Labor Economist, Aaron Dubé's Cut of Alien 1979. It starts the same way. Spaceship. Computer. Space truckers, wake up. I feel dead. But we asked Aaron Dubé 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. Some of you may have figured out we're not home yet. Intercepted a transmission of unknown origin. A transmission? Out here? Yeah. You got us up to check it out. This is a commercial ship, not a rescue ship. Right. And it's not my contract to do this kind of doodoo. Sorry, can I say something? No, it's fine. There is a clause in the contract which specifically states, any systematized transmission indicating a possible intelligent origin must be investigated. No, 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. So, the end. Back to the cryo-sleep, I guess. Back to cryo-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 movie. Yeah, 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 bit. Do you remember, off the top of your head, the first words that are spoken in your film Alien Romulus? The first word I have spoken? Well, that is, let me remember. 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 it. Attention all workers. Yeah, yeah. Day shift starting in T minus 15 minutes. We at Planet 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 Alien movie, the first thing you do is trying to study what make the best iterations of this franchise. And I think, you know, if you look at the first one, you look given a second one and the third one, they're always talking about that. I mean, in a way, the, how powerless the individual can be, you know, in front of the machine. This is kind of a big deal for us. Fede Alvarez, he's a very accomplished horror thriller director. He made his first films in Uruguay. 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. Rains fake blood. Lots of fake blood. And yeah, Greg and I, big Fede Alvarez fans. And clearly, Fede knows that great Alien movies need smart ideas about labor and work. He's not a labor economist. So we wanted to talk to Fede about how he went about finding and building those smart ideas into his movie. And Fede told us he admittedly did not notice the econ in Alien at first. But later, when he was around age 20, he started to understand that this movie, it's 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 like, first thing, we're in a contract. It's wild. First thing they do. And talk about the rights as workers. 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 captain goes like, you know, you're going to get what you deserve. And obviously, he's talking about when the monster comes, we're all going to be the same. We're all going to be equal. Actually, the captain stopped, you know, he's one of the first ones to die. And that shows how death is that big an equalizer. So I'm curious. We're going to get a little. Economics-y here, with your permission. Yes? Yeah, of course. Okay, great. Have you ever heard the term monopsony? Does this come across your radar? Oh, no. Okay. Because you 1,000% nail this perfectly in your movie. 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-Yutani. And it is, you know, bad. And 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 Weyland-Yutani's office of colony. And she tries to submit some paperwork to get off this planet. You know, basically, she's trying to quit her job. Full name and occupation, please. Maria Raines-Cardy, ma'am. I met my quota, and I should be free to go now. I'm sorry, but you're not eligible for contract release yet. Wait, what? No, no, I reached the required hours. Unfortunately, quotas have been raised to 24,000 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 script. We asked Fede if he and his co-writer, Rodo Sayegues, had researched, like, 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, it's always the Wailing Utani 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. But I think that's why I think the best ones, they always start there. They get the audience. They draw them in from a perspective of, you know, everybody knows how it feels to be in that place and feel powerless. I've read a few quotes from you about this as an Uruguayan. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, you said things like growing up under a dictatorship in a developing country, that there is a feeling that 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 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 if you grew a beard, you will get arrested. But at the same time, that being said, there's also the other side of it is when I moved to the United States, when I make Evil Dead my first film and I moved here, I was like, wait a second, you guys don't have like vacation. You don't have like a salary, like you don't have like guarantee 30 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 society? So, you know, Uruguay, we have health care, it's free health care. And, you know, particularly in the employer dynamics, if you get hired by a company and they want to fire you, it's okay, they can fire you. But they will have to pay you. There's all this severance thing. They have to pay you at least a month of salary for each year that you work at the company. Work hard is too far. And I took for granted all my life living there. And then when I came here, I never heard people laughing at all this nonsense. So for me, that also made me understand why in Alien, it was important if I was going to make one to really bring some of the subjects, you know, to the forefront. A rumor on the street is that you and Roto have already written the sequel to Alien Romulus. Is that correct? We did. We did. I didn't want to direct another one. No, no, no questions about whether you're going to direct. I don't need spoilers. You don't need to spoil any plot. But can you exclusively for our Planet Money audience tell us, will we get more? labor economics definitely that's what they're all about yeah that's what they're all about it's not a good alien movie if it doesn't you know deal with that's true can we expect now that i've taught you the term monopsony is it too late to change your next script and throw a little sprinkle a little monopsony this is don't you see it guys this is a monopsony the whole theater's going is it what yeah that's right they're gonna know they'll know they'll know um feday thank you so much this was awesome i hope you enjoyed talking some of this well my pleasure in my pleasure don't fast forward we've got a special event to tell you about that is just going to be for our npr plus supporters uh if you couldn't make one of our book tour events back in april we've got great news for you we're doing one more one more book tour event this time it's a live virtual event it's on thursday june 25th at 3 p.m eastern my colleague jeff guo will be there the main author of our book alex mayasi he will be there we'll also have some special guests tbd if you've already joined npr plus thank you and listen to our most recent bonus episode to find out how to register for the event and if you have not joined npr plus yet well make sure you're signed up by june 24th to get our invite just go to plus.npr.org again that is plus.npr.org signing up is a great way to support the show npr and independent non-profit journalism we'll see you there today's episode of planet money was produced by the wonderful the incomparable james sneed go nicks it was edited by jess jang fact-checked by sierra juarez and engineered by robert rodriguez our executive producer is alex goldmark special thanks this week to taylor haber and to you greg rozalski you little more of you uh greg if you are not familiar is our newsletter writer and wrote two excellent newsletters about monopsony about the movie alien about aaron dubay and those inspired this show so you can find those we're going to link to them in our show notes yeah thanks kenny really appreciate that yeah i'm kenny malone and i'm greg rozalski this is npr thanks for listening the key is to get a little bit of like the the like kind of wet sound like that's what would the subtitle of your xenomorph sound say like the descriptive audio i don't know i don't know what i was gonna say i was gonna say Gurgles monopsonistically. That's what I'm going with. Yeah, scary gurgling.