EconGoneCountry

Supply and demand with a twang

Title: I Wish Grandpas Never Died

​Artist: Riley Green

Economic Concepts: Prices; Economies of scale; Optimization; Profit maximization; Perfect competition

Details: Riley Green’s “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” provides a list of wishes, one of which is: “I wish the price of gas was low and cotton was high”.  This could be a good song to illustrate to students that many agricultural markets are close to perfectly competitive, with numerous producers that are price takers.  Farmers, therefore, are at the whim of the market when it comes to commodity prices. 

Later in the song, it is wished that “farms never got sold”.  One of the major issues facing family farms today is competition from larger commercial operations, which take advantage of economies of scale.  U.S. farms in 1945 averaged about 195 acres, whereas the average farm in 2019 was 444 acres (U.S. Department of Agriculture).   

Lyrics: 
I wish girls you loved never gave back diamond rings
I wish every porch had a swing
Wish kids still learned to say "sir" and "ma'am"
How to shake a hand
I wish every state had a Birmingham

I wish everybody knew all the words to Mama Tried
I wish Monday mornings felt just like Friday nights

And I wish even cars had truck beds
And every road was named Copperhead
And coolers never run out of cold Bud Light
And I wish high school home teams never lost
And back road drinkin' kids never got caught
And I wish the price of gas was low and cotton was high
I wish honky tonks didn't have no closing time
And I wish grandpas never died

I wish Sunday's on a creek bank would never end
Wish I could learn to drive again
Wish the first time, seventeen
She was my everything
Kiss in a Chevrolet could happen every day

I wish everybody overseas was gonna make it home
I wish Country music still got played on Country radio

And I wish even cars had truck beds
And every road was named Copperhead
And coolers never run out of cold Bud Light
And I wish high school home teams never lost
And back road drinkin' kids never got caught
And I wish the price of gas was low and cotton was high
I wish honky tonks didn't have no closing time
And I wish grandpas never died
Never died

And I wish good dogs never got grey and old
I wish farms never got sold

And I wish even cars had truck beds
And every road was named Copperhead
And coolers never run out of cold Bud Light
I wish high school home teams never lost
And back road drinkin' kids never got caught
And I wish the price of gas was low and cotton was high
I wish honky tonks didn't have no closing time
And I wish grandpas never died
I wish grandpas never died   ​​​​