As I recall, 16 tons is about the life of a coal miner.
A coal miner who was "another day older and deeper in debt", and who "owed his soul to the company store". The song wasn't about the mining; it was about the debt.
MSNBC needs to get some people on whom people will watch! They were fools to fire Keith Obermann. They need people who are more than Angry Commies. maybe some real marxists for a change—some Russians maybe. Maybe some raving, foming at the mouth Arabs who hate the west and all.
Another day older and deeper in debt
I owe my soul to the company store.
Just a song about another form of debt slavery, slavery to the coal company when wages were low and the company controlled the retail business in the coal town.
And company towns. Miners were constantly in debt to the mining companies and almost literaly slaves to that debt.