Reminds me of the 1947 "Sixteen Tons" song. From German Wikipedia, translated by DeepL:
"According to Archie Green, the lyrics contain several key passages that Travis took from quotes from his family members. When asked about his health, his father reportedly replied that he couldn't afford to die because he owed his soul to the grocery store[7] where he had debts.
Sixteen Tons is a socially critical song about the sometimes inhumane conditions that American miners and their families had to live under in the past. This included wage slavery:
US miners were mostly paid not in cash but with tokens (scrips), some of which could only be redeemed in company-owned stores, as there were no other shops in the area;
local food supplies could only be obtained in these stores (company stores), which had a virtual monopoly and could therefore charge excessive prices;
The income and expenditure situation in the company stores, which was deliberately controlled exclusively in favor of the mine owners, resulted in unavoidable debts for the workers (Another day older and deeper in debt), which created a relationship of dependency similar to serfdom ("I owe my soul to the company store").
By the time the song was written, the miners' living and working conditions had already improved significantly, partly as a result of numerous strikes. Payment with tokens had been banned in 1938 by a federal law, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. However, working conditions remained harsh and the memory of exploitative practices was still fresh in the minds of the families and communities affected."
I'm not sure why you transllated the german entry for an american song, but FYI, there's an english wikipedia version. "I owe my soul to the company store" is one of the greatest lyrics ever.
I don‘t know if "better“, but when I read Doctorow‘s blog article I was reminded of what I read about the 16 tons song on Wikipedia. I first read the English version and did not find what I was looking for. Then I tried German and there it was.
"According to Archie Green, the lyrics contain several key passages that Travis took from quotes from his family members. When asked about his health, his father reportedly replied that he couldn't afford to die because he owed his soul to the grocery store[7] where he had debts. Sixteen Tons is a socially critical song about the sometimes inhumane conditions that American miners and their families had to live under in the past. This included wage slavery: US miners were mostly paid not in cash but with tokens (scrips), some of which could only be redeemed in company-owned stores, as there were no other shops in the area; local food supplies could only be obtained in these stores (company stores), which had a virtual monopoly and could therefore charge excessive prices; The income and expenditure situation in the company stores, which was deliberately controlled exclusively in favor of the mine owners, resulted in unavoidable debts for the workers (Another day older and deeper in debt), which created a relationship of dependency similar to serfdom ("I owe my soul to the company store"). By the time the song was written, the miners' living and working conditions had already improved significantly, partly as a result of numerous strikes. Payment with tokens had been banned in 1938 by a federal law, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. However, working conditions remained harsh and the memory of exploitative practices was still fresh in the minds of the families and communities affected."
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Tons_(Lied)