General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Far Too Many Businesses Would Embrace Slavery [View all]Dukkha
(7,341 posts)If they thought they could get away with it, they would pay their employees only in vouchers or scrips for the company store.
PBS did a documentary about this in 2012 titled "Slavery by Another Name" where in remote locations such as railroad construction sites, lumber camps, turpentine camps, or coal mines, the employer sometimes developed a company town, where an individual company owned all the buildings and businesses. Your employer had a total monopoly and therefore owned you. Without external competition, housing costs and groceries in company towns could become exorbitant, and the workers built up large debts that they were required to pay off before leaving.
"Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store."