Labour & Pop Culture: Money's Too Tight to Mention

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is Simply Red’s “Money’s Too Tight to Mention”. This song was a hit in about 1985 (I think) during the height of Reaganonmics with its ridiculous trickle-down theory. I was thinking about the song the other day when reading about various debunked economic theories that just won’t die.

The Phillips Curve is one such notion. It basically asserts that there is an inverse relationship between unemployment and wages and, thus, prices (i.e., inflation): when unemployment goes up, wages and prices come down and vice versa. This (now debunked) theory suggests that governments can shape (and limit) inflation by controlling unemployment.

Newspaper reporters often use (however unconsciously) this theory when reporting upon unionized wage settlements. In effect, they link wage increases to inflation (even though there is a large body of literature suggesting price increases drive wage increases) and, subsequently, job losses. The result of this frame is that unions are seen in a negative light.



I been laid off from work
My rent is due
My kids all need
Brand new shoes

So I went to the bank
To see what they could do
They said son - looks like bad luck
Got-a hold on you

[Chorus:]
Money's too tight to mention
I can't get an un-em-ploy-ment ex-ten-sion
Money's too tight to mention

I went to my brother
To see what he could do -
He said bro-ther like to help you
But I'm unable to

So I called on my fa-ther fa-ther
Oh my fa-ther
He said

[Chorus:]
I can't even qual-i-fy for my pension

We talk a-bout rea-gan-on-ics
Oh lord down in the con-gress
They're passing all kinds - of bills
From down cap-it-ol hill - (we've tried them)

[Chorus:]

Money's too tight to mention
[spoken] cut-back!
Mo-ney mo-ney mo-ney mon-ey
We're talk-in' a-bout mon-ey mon-ey
We're talk-in' a-bout mon-ey mon-ey
We're talk-in' 'bout the dollar bill
Now what are we all to do
When the mon-ey's got a hold on you?

Mo-ney's too tight to mention
Oh mon-ey mon-ey mon-ey mon-ey
Mo-ney's too tight to mention
A-mero - mon-ey oh yeah

We're talk-in' a-bout mon-ey mon-ey
We're talk-in' a-bout mon-ey mon-ey
We're talk-in' a-bout mon-ey mon-ey
We're talk-in' a-bout mon-ey 

-- Bob Barnetson