In 1946, Merle Travis wrote a song about a coal miner singing a lament about not being able to get ahead in life, indeed, about not being able to ever catch up, even. Though Travis recorded it, also, Tennessee Ernie Ford’s cover of the song, Sixteen Tons, reached number one on the charts.
More below.
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In those days coal mining was even more difficult (and more dangerous!) than it is today, since almost all of the work had to be done by hand. By shovel. The person in the song loads sixteen tons of coal-laden material out of the mine per day, and couldn’t meet life’s expenses with that prodigious level of output.
In those days, businesses like the mines would manage their own stores, giving ‘credit’ to its workers so they could buy things without money, which, since there was no such thing as a ‘living wage,’ made that store the only place they could buy things. Prices were high enough that their wages came up short of covering the ever-growing bill to the company store. The more they worked, the more they owed. Pretty sweet deal for the companies.
Of course, it wasn’t just coal businesses that ran this kind of thing, it was well known in the textile industry and others, often found in ‘company towns.’
In the song, the man pleads with Saint Peter to not ‘call him,’ as he can’t even afford to DIE. Certainly his family can’t afford for him to. What hideous circumstance! Can’t afford to live, can’t afford to die.
The companies made out okay, though. Their labor costs, in a ‘free’ market, were essentially zero. It’s not hard to compete if the labor portion of the profit equation is free.
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 weak and a back that's strong
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 was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "well, bless my soul"
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 was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Can't no high-toned woman make me walk the line
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
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 get you, then the left one will
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
(Lyrics from songfacts.)
We think of conditions like those in Sixteen Tons as being artifacts of an era gratefully left behind.
Yet, USA Today posted a story on Friday about some truckers who fight the same battle today, trying to work to own their own trucks. But the system is completely rigged against them.
The trucker named in the first paragraph often drove for 16 hours per day, taking home, per the article, as little as sixty seven CENTS per week! In October of 2013, the truck he was leasing to own broke down, and he couldn’t afford to pay for repairs. So, the company fired him, and ‘re-possessed’ the truck he had paid $78,000 to try to own.
Slave labor is alive and well in 45’s world, led by a party delighted to create such favorable conditions for corporations, no matter the cost to individuals and families, who have no collective power.
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From blueoregon:
Top Mojo ala mik!
For Saturday, June 17, 2017, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject.
2017-06-18, courtesy of jotter!