162
Paystub from a US coal miner in 1942. Ends up owing his employer $1.84 ($35.76 in 2023) at the end of the pay period.
(lemmygrad.ml)
What do we call this? Early stage capitalism? What the Western world is on track to return to? Forshadow capitalism?
This is when miners were paid in company currency and lived in company houses and shopped at a company store.
"I owe my soul to the company store" song comes to mind.
Grew up in an old union mining town that had some pretty violent strikes in the 1910s and 20s. Didn't realize it was still going on other places into the 1940s.
Set local minimum wage law to median rent prices. And watch landlords/NIMBYS and employers fight each other. That's the only way to dig out way out of this mess.