As I recall, 16 tons is about the life of a coal miner.
Indeed, that’s what is so surreal. This analogy has been around for EONS. It’s been commonplace throughout history. “Debt slavery,” “wage slavery,” “debt bondage.” The libs arguing otherwise are either totally ignorant, or as usual, they are completely inventing a new ‘reality’ out of their posteriors, re-writing history and terminology, in order to send signals to their LIV crowd that Palin/tea-partiers are all a bunch of evil racists. Which the moronic LIV hordes will eat up and perpetuate.