Labour & Pop Culture: Supply and Demand

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Supply and Demand” by Amos Lee. The song is about the tendency of people to construct their lives around their occupations and the impact this has on them. For example, a study out of Ohio found women working more than 60 hours per week had triple the risk of life threatening illnesses.

The message of the song is that:

Somethin' gotta give with the way I'm livin'
Seems I'm gettin' down everyday
The more I strive, the less I'm alive
And seems I'm gettin' further away
…
Yeah baby I need a plan to understand
That life ain't only supply and demand

The sentiment here is fine and all, but I wonder if the notion that self-reflection is a cure-all for over work is a bit facile. Certainly becoming aware that we’re working too much and might better spend our time doing other things is nice.

But there are lots of concrete reasons people work more that they’d like, such as declining real-dollar wages, a lack of permanent jobs, and growing economic insecurity. Pop culture—which is embedded in a capitalist economy—rarely problematizes the structural outcomes of capitalism.

Instead, it tends to individualize responsibility. Like this song suggesting workers need to change their behaviour. I’m sure the warehouse guy in this video would like to work less:

Well your wife and your baby you tell them yeah well maybe
I'll meet y'all at a weekend resort
Put your eyes on the prize and you can realize
Your little girl's life's so short

But can he? And what kind of profound political and economic change would be required for a manual labourer to earn a living wage?

There doesn’t appear to be an official video for this song so I found this fan-made video. Note the lip-syncer is not Amos Lee.



Somethin' gotta give with the way I'm livin'
Seems I'm gettin' down everyday
The more I strive, the less I'm alive
And seems i'm gettin' further away

Oh well all my superstitions and my crazy suspicions
Of the people that I care about
I been doin' more screamin' than I been doin' dreamin'
And I think it's time I figured it out

Yeah baby I need a plan to understand
That life ain't only supply and demand

I been goin' joggin' in the park after dark
Draggin' 'round with me my ball and chain
Took southern skies to make me realize
That I'm causin' myself this pain

The woman that I'm lovin' yeah I'm pushin' and shovin'
Getting further on by the day
And I can't understand how the heart of this man
Ever let it end up this way

Yeah baby I need a plan to understand
That life ain't only supply and demand

When the road gets dark and lonesome dear
You can find me here
But honey you don't know where I am
You need a friieend yeeaahh

Life ain't easy in fact I know it's sleazy
When you're the big man in town
Shakin' religions and makin' decisions
You never get slow on down

Well your wife and your baby you tell them yeah well maybe
I'll meet y'all at a weekend resort
Put your eyes on the prize and you can realize
Your little girl's life's so short

Brother you need a plan to understand
That life ain't only supply and demand
Yeah sister you need a plan to understand
That life ain't only supply and demand

Hey, you better figure it out now
You know you ain't comin' back down, yeah
You better figure it out now
You know you ain't comin' back down

-- Bob Barnetson