In 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded what was probably his biggest hit record, Sixteen Tons. It was the b-side of a song titled, "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry". But the b-side turned out to be the hit, while the a-side went along for the ride. It had a catchy chorus, Sixteen Tons.
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 eight years old at the time. Deciphering the lyrics to songs from the radio was always a challenge for me what with all the static and feedback you got from AM radio. When I'd sing along with Tennessee Ernie I'd sing, "Saint Peter don'tcha call me 'cause I cain't go, I owe my soul to the company stow." I had a guess about what a company stow might have been, but I wasn't really sure. That had to be it, though. It rhymed with "go". I was eight.
Much later on, I don't recall exactly when, I found out that Tennessee Ernie was really saying, "company store." It could have been when I was learning about the labor union movement in some social studies class. The lesson taught that company stores were monopolies set up by the mines for the purposes of gouging their workers, the idea being to keep workers mired in debt and in perpetual servitude. Turns out that was not exactly an accurate picture.
Price Fishback pointed out that a competitive labor market would limit monopolistic pricing policies on the part of firms that operated company towns and produce a single real wage for all miners participating in this market. Thus if miners were free to move among mines, and companies competed for employees then this would in turn have prevented mine owners from exploiting their employees.
Fishback suggested that the 4.2 percent price differential on food that existed between company and independent stores represented the maximum company stores could charge due to their favorable location. Furthermore, this difference was partly offset by higher wages and transportation costs.
Fishback also found that the use of scrip, or advances by the company, used to finance living expenses was limited. Companies seldom carried debt longer than two weeks. Furthermore most miners had no more than 60 percent of their pay deducted as a result of the use of scrip. This meant that miners were not tied to the company through exorbitant debt. In addition he found that rents on company housing were normal in comparison to rents in independent communities. He also found that companies that offered exceptional sanitation, such as flush toilets, paid lower wages (roughly 3.4 percent less). This suggests that wages adjusted to differences in amenities offered by different company towns.
Labor unions like to take the credit for improving conditions for American workers, and sometimes you have to give them their due. But a competitive labor market does more to improve working conditions, providing more, for more people, than labor unions could ever dream of doing. That miners were able to leave one company and go to work for another meant that the mining companies were forced to compete for workers.
While the myth of the company store lives on in progressive hearts, in real life it's the progressive Democrats who run today's version of the company store. As the champions for organized labor, it's in their best interests to give all the credit for rising standards of middle class living to labor unions. It's a tough sell, though, since less than 12% of all workers belong to a union. More and more, workers are choosing not to be part of a union, which means making the case for unions is more about making the case against business. So in the progressive playbook any business tax breaks or loosened state or federal regulations are advertised as attacks on workers, and any rise in company profits is implied to be at workers' expense.
What we have is a never ending progressive war on business. Ironically, nowhere is this more evident than back at the old coal mine. Remember that old war on coal?
Ohio-based Marathon last year completed a five-year, $2.2 billion expansion of its Detroit facility, bringing 5,000 contractor jobs and 155 permanent refinery and subcontractor jobs—many of them $30-an-hour, union-represented positions.
Pet coke is being tested by local utility DTE Energy for use in its coal-fired plants. In a neat twist, the material is also being exported back to a Canadian power plant in Nova Scotia (as well as to other countries) via barges loaded at the Detroit waterfront.
With 16.3% unemployment in the city (though some officials believe the real number may be double that), a lifeless, industrially zoned waterfront, and an underwater city budget, one might think that signs of economic revival would be celebrated. Think again.
Democrats in Michigan, national environmental groups and some members of Canada's parliament have seized on the fact that Koch Carbon—a company owned by the conservative, politically active Koch brothers—buys the pet coke from Marathon. These politicians and activists have launched an international media campaign claiming there's a Koch plot to bury Detroit in hazardous waste.
They rail against business, but they're in business. The progressive product is government, and theirs is an exercise in perpetual promotion. Politics being what it is, big government progressives are unconstrained by the they limitations they impose on other enterprises. Truth in advertising? Who needs it? Certainly not our compassionate Democrats. The rules for the rest of us don't apply to them, so progressives are free to make accusations that would result in lible suits for the rest of us if we made them. Like how the Koch brothers want to destroy Detroit.
So the Democrats actively crush opportunity in Detroit and elsewhere. And why? It's good business for the Democrat/progressive product. How will you live when you can't get a job? Progressives would have you believe that they'll take care of you. That's what government is there for. But there's a catch. There are no guarantees unless progressive Democrats are in control, so you'd better vote for the Democrat.
They leave out the part about how it's better if you don't mind living in poverty. If that's something you'd rather not do, then getting a job is the way to go. But progressive Democrats don't promote jobs, except for union jobs. They don't create opportunity unless there's some kickback involved, like the way union dues find their way into Democrat campaign war chests. In fact by actively reducing opportunity for the many, Democrats improve their chances for getting union dues from the lucky few.
Unfortunate for the many. If you just want have a job that pays a decent living, forget about it. That is not what's for sale at the progressive company store.
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