# Scrip **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677 "2010-11-06T06:27:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/1 "2010-11-06T06:27:22Z")
I was reading an article about Trona, CA. It was established as a ‘company town’. Employees of the mining company were paid in scrip instead of cash. I gather from what I’ve heard over the years, and as made popular in the song _Sixteen Tons_, that this was a common practice. Sure, employees could quit whenever they wanted; but they would be unemployed, homeless, and cashless – and they’d probably owe a debt to the company. It sounds little different from slavery. So having moved to a company town, how could they ever leave? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/2 "2010-11-06T11:25:59Z")
**Johnny** –I’m not sure you really have a question here. If you do, please make it a bit more plain. Otherwise, I think it needs to go to MPSIMS possibly. **samclem** Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/3 "2010-11-06T14:53:36Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > **Johnny** –I’m not sure you really have a question here. If you do, please make it a bit more plain. Question: If employees are paid in scrip and do not receive cash, and if scrip is not ‘legal tender for all debts public and private’, how did people have the resources to seek other employment if they wanted to change jobs? ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/4 "2010-11-06T17:02:05Z")
Or if you didn’t move, how could you save for retirement? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/5 "2010-11-06T17:15:50Z")
As to retirement: There was no such thing for the working classes in the Bad Old Days. If you ever became too infirm to go on working, due to age or illness or injury, it would be up to your children or surviving relatives, or to the charity of your friends or your church, to support you. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/6 "2010-11-06T17:21:46Z")
Frankly, the people running the mines didn’t care. If you couldn’t work, they’d hire someone else and kick you out of your company-owned housing. You could leave – I doubt the company was going to spend good money to track down people who left owing them for housing. There were other places to find work. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrip/559677/7 "2010-11-06T20:31:53Z")
**Reality Chuck** has it right. The company owns all the houses, stores, and everything. Besides mining, it showed up with tenant farming. Your earnings were often not enough to cover the cost of shelter and food, so you could work for years and not have any money. Or, like in the song, “Saint Peter, don’tcha call me 'cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store.”