Remember the old poem by Jesse B. Rittenhouse from the "Door of Dreams" which says:

I bargained with life for a penny
And life would pay no more,
However, I begged at evening when
I counted my scanty store.
For life is just an employer;
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for menial's hire
Only to learn dismayed,
That any wage I asked of life
Life would have paid.