In 1947 country/folk artist Merle Travis recorded a song that he had written called “Sixteen Tons”. The song was about working as a coal miner, and contained the following lines:
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
The last two lines actually came from his father, who would often say “I can’t afford to die. I owe my soul to the company store.” Back in the days before unions, when companies had a death grip on workers, the coal mining companies didn't pay the miners in cash. They paid them with credits to the company store which carried groceries and household goods where the miners would buy what they needed. This guaranteed that every penny went right back into the company's pockets, and the miners remained in a never-ending circle of poverty that made them completely dependant on the company.
When Merle Travis first put out the song on record, it became a hit, but it really blew up when it was recorded by country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Do you know that for writing that song Merle Travis was followed around by the F.B.I. for the rest of his life? The fact that he wrote a song that made working yourself to death for the rich while being paid peanuts seem anything less than glorious made him a “danger” to the agenda of the wealthy. Your government is run by the wealthy and has been for a long time. Remember, this was over 70 years ago, so if you think that corporations have only recently taken over the U.S. government in the last couple of decades, you are sorely mistaken. As George Carlin said “The politicians are just there to give you the illusion that you have a choice. You don't.”