The Plight of the Poor Miner, Sixteen Tons

In remote areas, like old American coal mining towns, there were so-called "company stores." The company would issue paychecks as scrip or vouchers, which could be used instead of cash to buy goods. They also handled credit services. Naturally, this was a company scheme. It was a system to reclaim employees' wages, and goods and rent were priced higher than market rates. If you got into bad credit, you could never leave that town. They also prevented the use of dollars, and employees were exploited, bound by debt. It was essentially modern-day slavery. It's like the underground labor camp in <Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor>. Today's song, "Sixteen Tons," comes from this context. It's a song about the sorrow of a poor miner who has pawned even his soul to the company store due to lack of money, growing older while his debt only increases. As a side note, these malicious practices disappeared due to reasons such as the formation of labor unions and strikes, the enactment of laws mandating that wages be paid in legal currency, and workers purchasing vehicles.