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

**Kenny Malone** (0:00)
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.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:13)
This is Planet Money from NPR.

**Kenny Malone** (0:18)
We begin today with, I think truly, one of the most chilling earnings calls I have ever heard.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:23)
Really disturbing stuff.

**Kenny Malone** (0:24)
And people should know, earnings calls generally, they're very welcome to Q3.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:28)
Yeah, profitability, costs, stuff like that.

**Kenny Malone** (0:31)
But in this call, they throw to the CEO and it is very different here. You want to hear it?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:36)
Bringing us to the earnings report on our deep space initiatives. Every corporation has a space fleet.

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:42)
Space fleet, of course. Every corporation has a space fleet.

**Kenny Malone** (0:45)
You know, space fleet is a weird way to put the pivot to space, I suppose. But like, you know, I kind of follow.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:50)
But because we were there first, our profits have grown exponentially in less than a decade.

**Kenny Malone** (0:56)
I'm not a CEO coach, but like...

**Greg Rosalsky** (0:58)
I'd sound less cartoonishly evil, maybe?

**Kenny Malone** (1:00)
Yeah, you'd sound like a super villain.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:02)
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** (1:14)
Sounds like maybe a good investment, I'm not sure.

**Kenny Malone** (1:16)
Are you buy on the Weyland-Yutani Company, Greg?

**Greg Rosalsky** (1:20)
I think so.

**Kenny Malone** (1:21)
Weyland-Yutani is a fictional company from the film franchise, Alien. And Greg, in case people don't know, the thing they have found in outer space that will bring great profitability.

**Greg Rosalsky** (1:32)
Could it be a killer alien?

**Kenny Malone** (1:34)
Yes, double-mouthed, acid-blooded xenomorph. 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.

**Greg Rosalsky** (2:07)
Dun, dun, dun.

**Kenny Malone** (2:09)
Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Kenny Malone.

**Greg Rosalsky** (2:12)
And I'm Greg Rosalsky. The movie Alien is set 96 years in a future where a single, gargantuan company controls basically everything and employs seemingly everyone.

**Kenny Malone** (2:24)
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 basically eats all of them except for one.

**Greg Rosalsky** (2:39)
It's pretty scary sci-fi stuff, but you know what's scarier, Kenny?

**Kenny Malone** (2:45)
What's that, Greg Rosalsky?

**Greg Rosalsky** (2:47)
More and more research suggests our sci non-fi world has a lot more in common with the labor dynamics of Alien than you might think.

**Kenny Malone** (2:56)
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 with us.

**Greg Rosalsky** (3:24)
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.

**Kenny Malone** (3:34)
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 Dubey. And if you haven't read that, also, come on, what's wrong with you, people?

**Greg Rosalsky** (3:47)
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 about the movie Alien.

**Kenny Malone** (3:57)
It's true. And then Aaron wrote back to us and said, basically, heck yeah.

**Arin Dube** (4:02)
Pretty sure I watched Alien for the first time when I was in middle school.

**Kenny Malone** (4:07)
That's very young.

**Arin Dube** (4:09)
Yeah, it was very edgy.

**Kenny Malone** (4:10)
It's R-rated, Aaron.

**Greg Rosalsky** (4:13)
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.