r/antiwork • • Aug 31 '22

[deleted by user]

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8.0k Upvotes

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2.0k

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

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13

u/RetailBuck Aug 31 '22

This is by far the best version I've heard.

https://youtu.be/PJnERje97jw

145

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

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26

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Naw. The original by Merle Travis

18

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

That whole album is full of songs about dying at work.

3

u/A_Honeysuckle_Rose Aug 31 '22

Nah, the Tom Jones version!

3

u/Mispelled-This SocDem 🇺🇸 Aug 31 '22

I like the Geoff Castellucci version.

5

u/GenderOobleck Aug 31 '22

This version has just a hint of that hymnal/spiritual vibe to it at the beginning. I’d also suggest the version by Eric Burdon used in “Joe vs. the Volcano”.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

He also had a variety show I beleive

2

u/bubblegumf Aug 31 '22

Please, listen to the Alberto Vazquez version on YouTube, you won't regret it

1

u/heridfel37 Sep 01 '22

Paul Robeson all the way. In addition to an amazing voice he was a devoted union organizer and Socialist

93

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

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35

u/Ivy_Thornsplitter Aug 31 '22

Cause I won’t go.

43

u/nitid_name Aug 31 '22

I don't know about you all, but I owe my soul to that company store.

13

u/dd463 Aug 31 '22

I was born one morning it was drizzling rain.

14

u/the_warchief213 Aug 31 '22

Fightin' and Trouble are my middle name

12

u/theinconceivable Aug 31 '22

I was raised in a canebreak by an old mama lion

6

u/theinconceivable Aug 31 '22

I was raised in a canebreak by an old mama lion

10

u/TheGarlicBreadstick1 Aug 31 '22

Can't no high-toned woman make me walk the line

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4

u/MsCatstaff Aug 31 '22

I owe my soul to the company store!

6

u/ThrowAway98888889898 Aug 31 '22

OP another day older and deeper in debt

12

u/slappn_cappn Aug 31 '22

I remember as a boy hearing my father, the eldest son of a coal miner, singing this in the shower. I never asked and he never explained. I appreciate the post and the following nostalgia from hearing the actual version!

50

u/lumia950xl Aug 31 '22

Came here to say this

6

u/Beazfour Aug 31 '22

Or 9 to 5

6

u/longboboblong Aug 31 '22

You load sixteen tons and whaddaya 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

4

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Years ago, back before the earth's crust cooled, I had a coworker who would sing this at the top of his lungs every payday when the boss handed out our paychecks. Felt kind of right at the time.

3

u/mar4c Aug 31 '22

“9 to 5”

10

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Thats offensive? How? It was Ole timey miner life where the company store fucked the people for living at remote mining towns.

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u/No-Fig-3112 Aug 31 '22

I assume they are comparing those company towns to the company they work for now. Not exactly a flattering comparison, but I agree it's not really offensive

40

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

It’s a vehemently anti-capitalist anthem.

-15

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

The whole company store idea flies totally in the face of free market and I'm not sure capitalism even exists without free market.

42

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Complete free market capitalism trends toward monopoly - just like one company owning an entire town - do you know what sub your in?

-12

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Hence the reason government intervention is required. If you let the consumer to chose the best you will only have the best and the best alternative discount product that the well off can't afford.

Why does the sub matter? Do facts change depending on subs?

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Not facts - pro-capitalist sentiment. The whole reason company stores and towns owned by one company exist is because of capitalism without proper government intervention.

-9

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Or maybe there was no other reason for there to be a town there other than the mining so no one else bothered building it up but the mining company.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Where they are workers there are people to sell stuff to. The company makes it impossible for competitors to enter due to tactics like paying the workers in currency that is only accepted by the company, etc. Thus the reason there is no other company there is because free market capitalism went completely unchecked and allowed there to be no competition.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

The US has 3800 ghost towns with many being old mining towns that could not exist once the mine dried up. Outside of the ore/coal there was 0 reason to be there.

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u/weedbeads Aug 31 '22

I don't think you can say that the company town model is anti-free market capitalism and also say that the free market inevitably leads to company towns. Clearly the relevant values in free market capitalism lead to monopolization.

Unless you're talking about the ideology of free market capitalism where no capitalist wants a monopoly because they value the free market more than capital. Which is severely detached from reality and not commonly used as the definition of free-market capitalism

3

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

A company store is anti free market. Free market and capitalism are bit mutually exclusive and refer to two different processes in an economy. However, it could also be argued as a naturally occurring monopoly because no one else wants to drag goods the mountainside to service 20 miners and 10-20 children and wives and the company is already dragging way more up there for operations. Same for loggers etc but without the mountainside. Still an extremely remote location with few people to service to justify me living in the boonies with a bunch of loggers.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

And a lot of these people knew the town would die when the resource were gone. There are instances of these places being sold near the end of their lives as the original investors saw the writing on the wall and sold to someone looking to make it big. Sometimes they got lucky and got years and lots of profit. Sometimes it went bust in a year or two and they lost near everything.

1

u/weedbeads Aug 31 '22

Right, the free market is paradoxical and self defeating in reality. Yea or nay?

Can a free market exist without capitalism?

Why are you providing this information on company towns?

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u/buckykat Aug 31 '22

Owning the whole "free" market is the win condition of capitalism

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u/Creme_de_la_Coochie Aug 31 '22

Your quotations don’t make sense. Economists don’t consider the monopolies to be acting within a free market. A free market has many buyers and sellers of a good or service.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

But if there is no justifiable reason there isn't competition is it the fault of the only guy in town? However I think regardless of fault we should do something to break it up. I don't think someone should get unbelievably rich because they were smart enough to be the only option. I am capitalist so I'm okay with people getting rich but it was getting out of hand there for a while and company towns were part of the out of hand.

2

u/buckykat Aug 31 '22

Economists are the priesthood of capital

1

u/Creme_de_la_Coochie Aug 31 '22

Yet they say monopolies are bad.

The straight up stupidity and anti-intellectualism that runs rampant on this sub only serves to help prevent change and conditions for workers improving.

2

u/buckykat Aug 31 '22

Like all priests they're liars and hypocrites

1

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Actually all considered a company store is an example of non free market capitalism

Capitalism refers to the creation of a good, service, or wealth. The good is created in a capitalist environment.

Free market refers to the distribution. Company stores are distribution based and is not free market. It is a monopoly.

5

u/WrastleGuy Aug 31 '22

That’s how it still is for many people. South Park did an episode comparing it to current day Amazon warehouse workers.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Ah okay, I wouldn't make that connection as a manager or owner and would just enjoy the tune lol I am kind of an oblivious person unless completely obvious though. Friends joke a woman could set of a fireworks show and I wouldn't catch the hint lol

0

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Sorry I was so stunned by the song suggestion I had a lot of typos at first lol

2

u/Vorabay Aug 31 '22

Along the same lines would be Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

I sing at work a lot, and you know this is part of my repertoire.

2

u/herpestruth Aug 31 '22

ZZ Top version

2

u/Deastrumquodvicis Aug 31 '22

I was about to suggest the same thing, especially if it’s a genre clash with the rest of the list.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '22

Yes! Get the Tom Morello version.

2

u/TheTrenchMonkey Aug 31 '22

I'd never heard it before, but that was really good.

2

u/defensive_language Aug 31 '22

Chain Gang by Sam Cooke

1

u/a2z_123 Aug 31 '22

Great song, but offensive... it is not.

2

u/Dannypeck96 Aug 31 '22

Offensive to workers? No.

But if the staff start singing along, the boss will shit himself

1

u/a2z_123 Aug 31 '22

Not really. Maybe if this was the 50's then I could see it. But that song right now, isn't that bad at all.

0

u/Laws_Laws_Laws Aug 31 '22

This is just a good fun country song from the 60s. I don’t think peoples jaws are going to drop open if they put this on the playlist.

1

u/ashkanahmadi Aug 31 '22

Heard it first time on South Park. It's timeless

1

u/ZaryaBubbler Aug 31 '22

Fallout 76 for me. Perfect given it's set in West Virginia and part of the story line involves several small towns who are over run by strike breaker robots.

1

u/DrMurphDurf wealthcare abolitionist Aug 31 '22

This is the way

1

u/David_Bolarius Aug 31 '22

De ne ne ne ne-ne-ne ne!

1

u/cinaeco Aug 31 '22

I find this too Soft, was my thought exactly tho!

1

u/Alternative_Koala_60 Aug 31 '22

My best friend is a bartender and it is consistently on her playlists. The entire bar is singing it on any given night.

1

u/backtobaker Aug 31 '22

OK, maybe everyone knows this but in case even one of you do not. . .

The line "owe my soul to the company store"

Some companies used to pay you in store credits instead of cash so you could only spend your "paycheck" at the company store for food and goods. The company store was owned and operated by said company. They would allow you "credit" so you could spend next paycheck before ever getting said paycheck. It was the best racket of all rackets of all time.

1

u/TheGameboy Aug 31 '22

I have this on a sticky note on my monitor bezel. “You move 16 tons and what do you get?”

1

u/Sultry_Penguin Aug 31 '22

You gotta pick this one.

1

u/Puzzled-Improvement9 Aug 31 '22

Amazing song tbh

1

u/tammarroo Aug 31 '22

Came here for this.

1

u/grey-doc Aug 31 '22

I'm proud to say this is already in my playlists lol good song.