By Anil Netto
You load sixteen 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... This is part of a song about the misery and the bondage of debt among coal-miners, first recorded by Merle Travis in 1946 and later made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford and Frankie Laine.

The lyrics spoke of an exploitative system where the miners were not paid in cash but with vouchers that could only be used to buy goods from the company store. They also lived in accommodation provided by the company and the rent was automatically deducted from their pay.

The net result of this exploitative system was to make workers more and more dependant on the company for their survival. We may think we have made progress since those dark days for workers. But have we really? Are we really no longer in debt bondage? Have we not also sold our soul to corporate values?

We are now in the middle of a recession, which should give us some breathing space to pause and reflect: What’s it all about? We slave and slog for hours on end, with an elusive dream for the future. But the future never comes; we are still stuck in our positions in our daily grind as we grow older and greyer. Meanwhile, the pressure on workers grows stronger.

The Shareholders (the owners of a firm) want to make ever-higher returns. But their goods are not selling fast enough for market share to increase. Or the public can’t afford to keep buying more and more because their own wages can’t keep pace with the rising cost of living that allows a small minority to get even richer. So the Shareholders exert pressure on the Managing Director and the Board of Directors.

The Directors, mindful that their own positions are at stake, then exert pressure on the General Manager.

The under-pressure General Manager, conscious that his bonus and perks depend on the profitability of the firm, then summons his team of worried Department Managers and reads them the ‘riot act’

“I want to see results or heads will roll,” he bellows from his cosy office. “We need to cut overheads and increase productivity and trim our workforce. Set up Key Performance Indicators...”

The depressed Managers slink into their leather seats in the company boardroom. They return to their respective departments and pass on the pressure to their Supervisors and tell them that things will have to change. “Tell the staff to shape up or ship out. We need to see an improvement in productivity.”

The Supervisors go back to the Workers at the bottom of the ‘food chain’. “We need to cut costs and overtime; you need to work harder. The Company will not be hiring new staff to replace those who have taken VSS (voluntary retrenchment); so you lot will have to take on their workload. Don’t worry. When things get better, we will review the situation.”

The demoralised Workers go back to their families at the end of a long day, tired and burned out. They snap at their working spouses and yell at their Children, who themselves are often overburdened with homework from school.

The Children too are stressed out. They have been told that they have to go for this tuition and that tuition so that they can do well in their exams, find a good job and rise up the Corporate Ladder.

And the cycle goes on and on ... as the walls come closing in on us.

Even on weekends, families no longer have time to spend together. Gone are the days when many took their families for an afternoon out at a picnic or to their cousin’s place, so that the kids could play together while the adults sit and chat over coffee or tea. These days, it’s more likely to be computer games and a quick trip for a meal at a local fast food joint.

Do we owe our soul to the company store? Have we sold our soul to the corporate system? One of our parishioners challenged her son, “What do you get after slaving away for The Company, staying awake all night to prepare your reports and forecasts? If you drop dead and die one day, The Company will send a condolence bouquet to the house. But the Company will go on (and they will soon hire a replacement).”

Slowly and imperceptibly, over the years — no, over the decades — our quality of life has deteriorated as a result of selling our souls to the exploitative, consumerist, acquisitive and materialistic system.

We no longer have enough time to rest and smell the flowers. We no longer have time for gardening. We no longer have time to visit friends and strengthen community ties. Instead, we are glued behind computer screens. Despite all the time-saving devices and appliances we have, the irony is that we just don’t have enough time to live a balanced life.

This reflects our lopsided focus on the Material at the expense of the Spiritual. The result: stress, depression, mental illness, deteriorating social interaction and an erosion in community ties. The exploitative economic system further rips apart the social fabric as income inequalities widen and the crime rate soars.

Even during the time of Jesus, workers were held in bondage by poverty, debt, exploitative work conditions and military occupation. Constantly mingling with the humble folk in the countryside, Jesus could see the effects such bondage had on the peasants’ lives. It is in this context that we should see Jesus’ message, which today is all the more relevant: I have come to set them free. I have come so that they may have life to the full.

But we cannot have it both ways. We cannot worship God and Money at the same time. We cannot put our faith and security in both. Something has to give. The choice is ours. We need to step back and recognise what exploitation is and break free from the chains that bind us. And only then will we be able to live life to the full.