@codinghorror

Billy Joel -- Allentown
Bob Marley -- No Woman No Cry
Grandmaster Flash -- The Message
Phil Collins -- Another Day In Paradise
Yip Harwell -- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

I was also preparing to suggest "Minimum Wage", but you got it. 🙂

@codinghorror Dolly Parton - 9 to 5

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Songs about rich people's failsons and nepo babies are hard to find.

Movies though...

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/late-fame-film-review-2026

@codinghorror Money Don’t Matter 2 Night — Prince

@codinghorror Judas Priest: Breaking the Law begins with the lines

There I was completely wasting, out of work and down
All inside it's so frustrating as I drift from town to town
Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die
So I might as well begin to put some action in my life

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KMFDM - Dogma

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Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia

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Metric - Dark Saturday

Somewhere in the South of France
Or the Caribbean sea
She said "I don't need to make a living"
"Fake diamonds got nothing on me"

I met her in the world below
She's a tourist of the world beneath
I said "everything, I've built from nothing"
She said "I'm so rich, everything's free"

@codinghorror

King Missile - Take stuff from work

@codinghorror The Stylistics - People make the world go round

I vote this for the first place.

@codinghorror Does Huey Lewis and the News' "Workin' for a Livin'" count as a wealth inequality song?

@codinghorror No Way Down by The Shins

@codinghorror low budget - kinks

@codinghorror Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

@codinghorror Lou Reed's "Men of Good Fortune"?

@codinghorror World Turned Upside Down - Billy Bragg, In the Ghetto - Elvis Presley (incidentally my first ever vinyl purchase!)

@codinghorror john Lennon Working Class Hero

@codinghorror how about Crystal Waters, Gypsy Woman and maybe at a stretch Adventures of Stevie V, Dirty Cash.

@codinghorror The Clash - Career Opportunities
Elvis Costello - Pills and Soap

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Hall and Oates - Rich Girl
CCR - Fortunate Son
Springsteen - the river, my hometown

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Lou Reed - Dirty Boulevard
Steve Earle - Rich Man’s War
Iris DeMent - Wasteland of the Free

@codinghorror how about Billy Joel's Allentown

@codinghorror Stakka Bo - Here we go

@codinghorror Tracy Chapman - Talkin' Bout a revolution
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car

@codinghorror Dead Kennedys: let’s lynch the landlord

@codinghorror Gimme Some Money - Spinal Tap

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Reel Big Fish - Sell Out
K'naan - Wavin' Flag (the original one, not the version that was hijacked by Fifa)

@codinghorror Talking Heads - Dancing For Money
Frank Zappa - Heavenly Bank Account

@codinghorror TIL.
I was going to ask why you went for the Flying Lizards’ and not The Beatles’ version , only to learn the latter was also a cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_(That%27s_What_I_Want)

@codinghorror She works hard for the money, Donna Summer

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"Move to Limit Slabs" by Prolapse, it quotes Robert Burns and celebrates the low-paid workers of the English Midlands
"President Gas" by Psychedelic Furs
"Ghost Town" by The Specials, about the deindustrialisation of the English Midlands

@codinghorror Marlena Shaw “Woman of the ghetto”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AdCmN53jU78

@codinghorror The Bangles - Manic Monday
Todd Rundgren - Bang the Drum All Day
Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up
Jonathan Coulton - Code Monkey

@codinghorror

Tobacco Road (any artist, really) is a classic about growing up poor.

If worker's solidarity is more important than income inequality, Big Boss Man is good too.

If you don't mind going to a really dark place (such as coaxing your daughter to become a high class prostitute to escape poverty), Bobbie Gentry's Fancy is very good.

@codinghorror ABBA - Money Money Money

@codinghorror AC/DC Money Talks too aggressive?

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Woody Guthrie — take your pick, really
Bruce Springsteen — also, really

@codinghorror A contribution in Spanish: El costo de la vida - Juan Luis Guerra

@codinghorror Johnny Cash - 16 Tons

@codinghorror Massive Attack - Big Wheel, or Massive Attack - Safe From Harm.

@codinghorror Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve!
https://youtu.be/1lyu1KKwC74