I remember, when I was a kid, listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford, bless his pea-pickin’ heart. He had a deep, masculine voice and my favorite song of his was “16 Tons:”
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong…
I thought those were some pretty good lyrics, I guess. It wasn’t long before I was singing along with the chorus:
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I could really belt that out, but I had no idea what the hell he was singing about.
It was a long while before I found out...
This song is about a coal miner and was probably written by George S. Davis who, had been a coal miner in Kentucky.
Coal miners, back then, weren’t much more than slaves, and the coal companies scammed a real sweet deal for themselves.
Most mining towns were “company towns.”
The coal company bought the land and threw up some quick and dirty housing which they rented to the miners. If the miners quit work, or went on strike, they could be evicted from their homes.
But that was just for starters.
The company also owned the “company store,” the only store in town, and the miners had to buy their goods there. Frequently, the miners weren’t paid in actual money at all, but in company scrip, redeemable only for merchandise, not cash, and only at the company store. Credit was readily available – and necessary since the company usually held back two weeks’ pay – but prices were highly inflated.
The miners had to lease their tools from the company and buy the oil for their lamps, at the company store, of course. They also had to pay to have their tools sharpened.
By the time a miner got paid (usually monthly) he had a lot of debt to be deducted from his wages. At company store prices, it was easy for a miner to go in the hole financially as well as physically, and wind up working for free, to pay off his debt. Then he’d have to get more credit, which meant more debt to work off…. Anytime the miners got a raise, the company would just raise prices in the company store to balance – or exceed – that pay raise.
That’s the “company store” Ernie was singing about owing his soul to.
You wonder why unions got started?
That’s why.
You probably think you’re a lot better off than those dumb coal miners.
Guess again, Pal.
Look at your credit cards – it’s a company store scam designed to keep you in debt just paying the interest. I’ve known loan sharks who didn’t charge that much interest. Don't use credit cards? Good plan. If you're on your own, and have Spartan tastes and discipline, you could manage it. But if you have a family? Good luck with that one. Wages are low, prices are high, and credit is easy to get -- just like it was for the coal miners and for the same reasons. To put you in debt and keep you there.
Compare your “cost of living” raise (if you get one) to the actual increase in prices. For most people every raise is actually a pay cut.
Yeah. Just take a good look around.
You’ll see that today’s corporate-run America is nothing but one great big company store.
And you know who you are, don't you?
You're the dumb coal miner.
Maybe you should be singing this verse to the company bosses:
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will
See, what we need to do is go on strike.
We need to shut this whole operation down until we get some better working conditions.
It won’t be easy.
Like the coal companies of yore, they’ll send in their goons to bust heads.
What we have to do is stand up to them.
And stick together.
No matter what our ethnic or cultural differences, we have one very important thing in common: we’re ALL getting screwed by the Company.
Strike.
That way, when St. Peter does call you, at least you’ll have your soul back.
sj
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