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1. 

   sharklungs said, 10 months ago

   “I owe my soul to the company store…”
2. 

   margueritem said, 10 months ago

   Kohler, WI, is one such example. It looks like the workers had it pretty good.
3. 

   Nabuquduriuzhur said, 10 months ago

   There have been some interesting court cases in the last few years. Employers still try to assume they own off time, though.
4. 

   legaleagle48 said, 10 months ago

   Notice that Goat didn’t specify the turn of which century.
5. 

   firedome said, 10 months ago

   i guess i should count my blessings, then. where i work we have a rather stern “no o.t.” policy and as i’m a full timer my days off are definitely my own.
6. 

   rusty gate said, 10 months ago

   “…FIfteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store.”

   (That was definitely a racket for the employers. The laborers rented overpriced shacks from them and spent their whole salary at the company store where the prices on goods were sky high.)
7. 

   einarbt7 said, 10 months ago

   Good one.
8. 

   Varnes said, 10 months ago

   Glad I got out before before work came to me……
9. 

   KenTheCoffinDweller said, 10 months ago

   Yep, 10 min recall, 5 state pager, and an issued nationwide cell phone. Have to be available even during vacations. In some ways it is worse than in the military and then again I don’t have to keep up my Marksmanship Medals or live for two week at a stretch in the same uniform and chemical suit with gasmask. Some of the various trade-off have made it worth the change.
10. 

    Sisyphos said, 10 months ago

    @rusty gate

    Sixteen, rusty gate! —Which is even worse!
    And this strip, BTW, explains why I do not carry around a cellphone.
11. 

    BrassOrchid said, 10 months ago

    In order to avoid this in the future, we intend to make one company, the government, with complete police and regulatory control of everything we do. One big one will keep the little ones from taking root.
12. 

    orinoco womble said, 10 months ago

    Where I live, cellphones arrived comparatively late. Used to leave the house on days off, just to miss calls from coworkers (who did the same thing.) Glad retirement came before the tyranny of the cellphone.
13. 

    F6F5Hellcat said, 10 months ago

    Thanks to cellphones and the net there’s no longer a need for the company town. I think in some ways employees are worse off today than they were back when the towns were so prevalent. At least then if you managed to scrap up enough to take a vacation the company couldn’t really get in touch with you. I can remember as a kid my dad getting phone calls and having to go in to the plant because some machine broke down or some mechanic screwed up, company towns back then weren’t really a prevalent thing but thanks to the phone the company could still get you at home. At least you could take a vacation and they couldn’t reach you for a bit. Now you go on vaction you take your cellphone/smartphone and maybe some kind of computer to get on the net with and they can get you even on vacation.
14. 

    CountAnton said, 10 months ago

    @BrassOrchid I seriously hope that what you said there was some dark humour. We already tried that with a large experiment called the CCCP. Ask the Russians how that worked out for them…
15. 

    Radish said, 10 months ago

    The worker becomes a remote controlled robot that never gets off the electronic tether.
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