She sells seashells on a seashore
But the value of these shells will fall
Due to the laws of supply and demand
No one wants to buy shells 'cause there's loads on the sand
Step 1: you must create a sense of scarcity
Shells will sell much better if the people think they’re rare, you see
Bare with me, take as many shells as you can find and hide 'em on an island
Stockpile 'em high until they’re rarer than a diamond
Step 2: you gotta make the people think that they want 'em
Really want 'em, really fuckin' want 'em, hit 'em like Bronson
Influencers, product placement, featured prime time entertainment
If you haven’t got a shell, then you're just a fucking wasteman
Three: it's monopoly, invest inside some property
Start a corporation, make a logo, do it properly
"Shells must sell", that will be your new philosophy
Swallow all your morals, they're a poor man's quality
Four: expand, expand, expand
Clear forest, make land, fresh blood on hand
Five: why just shells? Why limit yourself?
She sells seashells, sell oil as well
Six: guns, sell stocks, sell diamonds, sell rocks
Sell water to a fish, sell the time to a clock
Seven: press on the gas, take your foot off the brakes
Then run to be the president of the United States
Eight: big smile mate, big wave, that's great
Now the truth is overrated, tell lies out the gate
Nine: Polarise the people, controversy is the game
It don't matter if they hate you if they all say your name
Ten: the world is yours
Step out on a stage to a round of applause
You're a liar, a cheat, a devil, a whore
And you sell seashells on the seashore
She sells seashells on a seashore But the value of these shells will fall (This is a reference to the popular tongue twister “She Sells Seashells” which goes like this:
She sells seashells by the seashore, But the seashells she sells aren’t seashells, I’m sure. So if she sells seashells on the seashore, Then I’m not sure if she sells real seashore shells.) Due to the laws of supply and demand No one wants to buy shells 'cause there's loads on the sand (“The laws of Supply and Demand” is a piece of microeconomics theory which states that prices of goods and services are based around the relationship between supply and consumer demand. A product with low demand and high supply will have its price fall and a product with high demand and low supply will have its price increase.")
Step one: you must create a sense of scarcity Shells will sell much better if the people think they're rare, you see Bare with me, take as many shells as you can find and hide 'em on an island Stockpile 'em high until they’re rarer than a diamond (To start breaking the laws of supply and demand, you can create artificial scarcity of goods by withholding consumer’s access to the competitions' goods or withholding the sale of these goods, to make consumers percieve these goods as rarer.
This is what happened with diamonds, where monopolistic companies withheld the supply of diamonds to create artificial scarcity.)
Step two: you gotta make the people think that they want 'em Really want 'em, really fuckin' want 'em, (Through manufactured consent and advertisements and other strategies, you want to create more demand for a product, so you can sell it more easily.) hit 'em like Bronson (This is a reference to the 2008 movie Bronson, a movie about the real life story of Michael Peterson aka Charles Bronson who is often called “Britain’s most violent prisoner”) Influencers, product placement, featured prime time entertainment If you haven't got a shell, then you're just a fucking waste, man (People have a strong desire to “fit in”, and one would abuse this desire by creating a sense that if you don’t own X product, you aren’t part of “us”. The same thing is happening with brand clothing, phones, computer parts, and more.)
Three: it's monopoly, invest inside some property (Monopoly is a Hasbro board game where players buy properties around the board. This step tells the listener to do the same in the real world.
Monopoly is also the state of owning complete stock of a certain object or service. At this point, provided the listener followed the previous steps, the listener should have a monopoly on seashells.)* Start a corporation, make a logo, do it properly "Shells must sell", that will be your new philosophy Swallow all your morals, they're a poor man's quality *(If you put morals over anything, you create less profit because you’re using money on properly providing for consumers, paying your workers, and so on. Creating maximum profit would require not valuing morals at all, and pushing everyone else down and abusing them for profit.
These companies don’t care about how they get this profit.
And this works because the general public buys the products anyways, “But point the mirror at ourselves We’re all part of this old money game”) Start a corporation, make a logo, do it properly "Shells must sell", that will be your new philosophy
Four: expand, expand, expand Clear forest, make land, fresh blood on hands (Companies like McDonalds and Coca-Cola are expanding in the forests, clearing tons of important trees, and also particularly assassinating and murdering people who protest against this.)
Five: why just shells? Why limit yourself? She sells seashells, sell oil as well (You won’t just make money selling only one product, sell other objects like oil, which is highly profitable.)
Six: guns, sell stocks, sell diamonds, sell rocks (Besides selling what you started out with, sell other stocks in order to gain even more money. This line states to sell everything even if it’s illegal, guns, diamonds, rocks (crack cocaine) if it makes you a ton of money. This is further reinforced by the fact the song is about making money through the loss of morals and ethics) Sell water to a fish, sell the time to a clock (A fish needs water to live, and a clock needs the time to function. Sell the people what they need = MAX PROFIT, because they have to pay you to survive.)
Seven: press on the gas, take your foot off the brakes (This is alluding to Right Accelerationism, a sociopolitical belief that calls for the rapid advancement of capitalism through adaptations such as in marketing, automation, and other digital technologies. Examples of right accelerationism emerging today are cryptocurrencies and digital algorithms. Furthermore, it is to not let anything stand in the way of profit and gains. Speeding can put yourself and others in massive danger, but can also be thrilling. Sometimes, businesses that take big risks emerge to become the most successful.) Then run to be the president of the United States (This is likely a reference to Donald J. Trump, a proclaimed businessman who infamously ran for president of the United States, and won the election.)
Eight: big smile mate, big wave, that's great Now the truth is overrated, tell lies out the gate (Most corrupt people hate the truth coming out, so they will do anything to prevent what they actually do from existing in the public’s eyes, even if they have to break the law. It also refers to how truth is dead and politicians and businessmen can lie and still be trusted and supported. And also, since you went through how to be a corrupt but loved politician and tycoon, you were also lying your way to the top as well.)
Nine: Polarise the people, controversy is the game It don't matter if they hate you if they all say your name (Polarizing people means to divide peoples opinions and get them to fight against each other so they aren’t united to fight against you.
For example, the media often uses ‘the left’ or ‘the right’ to generalize half the country when talking about politics, despite everyone being an individual. People also like the concept of bad and good, because it requires much less thought than seeing both sides of an argument and formulating their own opinion.
Additionally, most companies, or at least their CEOs, think that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Even if someone does bad things, people will continue to recognize it and know their name.
This line is likely specifically focused on Donald Trump, especially with the previous line about running to be the president of the United States. Infamously, the sheer volume of media coverage helped Donald Trump win the 2016 election, even though a great majority of news coverage was negative.)
Ten: the world is yours, step out on a stage to a round of applause You're a liar, a cheat, a devil, a whore, and you sell seashells on the seashore (You followed your dreams of becoming a capitalist by following Luigi’s wise words)
