the.com/company town
where your boss also owns your house, your grocery store, and your church.
means a town where a single employer controls housing, retail, and civic life, so quitting your job can mean losing your home.
from peaked in 19th and early 20th century industrial america, coal, steel, and textile firms built entire towns near remote plants so workers had nowhere else to shop or live; pullman, illinois became the infamous poster child after an 1894 strike.
scrip currencyworkers were often paid in company-only store credit
pullman strike1894 walkout paralyzed us rail traffic for weeks
still existstech campuses and mining towns echo the same model today