On occasion, I have used the country song “Automatic,” by Miranda Lambert, to introduce my students to the labor theory of value. In part, that’s because a lot of my students like country music (as do I, to be honest), but it’s also because the song’s understanding of the connections between time, effort, and value is usefully incoherent. Here’s the video. The key line in the song arrives in the chorus (full lyrics here): Hey, whatever happened to waitin your turn Doing it all by hand Cause when everything is handed to you It’s only worth as much as the Read more