Post your results here, please.
4 Likes
I think this comic is less along the lines of âitâs cheaper to manufacture stuff overseas nowâ than ânobody wants coal energy anymore, no amount of wishful thinking is going to bring it back so better find some way to move on.â
12 Likes
VHS isnât dead. Itâs a collectible! You know collectibles, right? They are comic books in a plastic bag that are never read. They are toys that are never removed from their packaging and/or played with. And now theyâre a movie you can appreciate by not watching it! Collectible!
4 Likes
Yes. Even though the ship has probably sailed on most US manufacturing and it is obvious that Trump is merely giving false hope to people in these dying jobs, it is really uncomfortable for non-Republicans to mock these people (as opposed to merely the hypocrisy of Trumpâs populism). It used to be that Democrats were concerned about keeping US jobs and it was the Republicans who blithely said that free trade and the free market will solve everything and everybody would magically get better jobs after all the working class jobs left.
5 Likes
Two upvotes, but thereâs no way to know if itâs MAGA types or people there to try to inject some sanity.
2 Likes
Comic is all wrong.
When Republicans pick winners and losers based on campaign contributions, itâs Freedom.
When Democrats pick winners and losers, itâs Hitler getting it on with Stalin in the middle of Arlington Cemetery.
3 Likes
I agree. I donât love the tone of the comic.
Those coal jobs are never coming back. But that doesnât answer anyoneâs concerns. The government should be working for the people, not telling them they are irrelevant.
The US is in a situation where somehow:
more than enough food/shelter/ipods for everyone + work that needs to be done + people who want to work = human misery
Bringing back coal jobs is not a solution to that problem but itâs also not really the job of former coal miners to try to solve this problem by themselves. Legislators need to look past the wishlists of desperate people and make changes that address the underlying issue. And if they canât because itâs too damn hard then they need to retire and make room for new people who will try.
10 Likes
Thatâs because the only metric for distributing those goods are economic. We all too often equate human value with economic value.
I think itâs pretty easy for people who arenât in a particular profession/job to dismiss their concerns about work, especially when itâs in such a controversial field as coal (because of the human and environmental costs associated with it). But I agree with you blaming the people who are in that region, and have few other options for supporting themselves and their families, is a way to address the problem at all. I suspect that social welfare needs to fill in the gap until the shifts in the economy wind their way into a new formation.
What that looks like, I donât know, but it feels like we have an opportunity as a society to address those issues and to shape the economy to come. But the neo-liberals out in silicon valley and DC seem to be winning that war⌠The culture wars (which weâve seen here in this thread, I think) are a major reason why many white working class labor refuse to align with progressives/the left.
7 Likes
I lost my family fortune trying to promote a DVD Rewinder. Thanks, Obama!
8 Likes
You mean like offer some type of retraining, so they can do a job besides coal mining?
And what if they donât want to do anything else?
7 Likes
Iâve often wondered why these folks donât up and do like everyone else does, and just move to where the jobs are?
Pride.
We might do well to have a migrant worker program to send laborers to places with lots of construction. Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, etc.
Itâs how a lot of people in Asia send home remittances to feed their families, and while weâre at it maybe we can bring the power of the US Government in to reform their coerced labor practices, eh?
And hey, maybe some of those folks will come home with a better appreciation of brown folks.
2 Likes
Arguably it is the job of former [insert obsolete industry of choice] workers to do their bit to get legislators elected who will do just that.
4 Likes
Be kind, rewind.
2 Likes
If you are designing public policy you donât get to blame the people for not cooperating with your plan to help them. I mean, youâll never get everyone, but if retraining programs are being offered and people arenât taking advantage of them, or if those who are arenât getting jobs, then thatâs an ineffective program.
Even if that is true there needs to be a better answer than just blaming people for their pride. The nation made these people, the nation is made of these people.
I wonder about a national migrant worker program. Maybe that would be a great idea if it wasnât just a ruse to give 90% of the program funding to a few billionaires.
I think it definitely is, and I hope that at some point thereâs a revolution on that front.
4 Likes
The problem with retraining is that a lot of people in those jobs arenât that great at book learning. As Iâm originally from Wisconsin I found the recent book âJanesville: An American Storyâ fascinating but depressing. Basically the retraining attempts after the closure of the GM plant were a massive failure and people who were lower middle class factory workers were reduced to poverty-level jobs at Walmart and similar.
Do we know the reasons why that is the case? The solution doesnât have to be some sort of college level education, just some form of retraining that helps them develop new skills. Again, this might be lack of job opportunities more than failure of individuals to be able to understand new kinds of work.
3 Likes
Worker mobility is complicated. On the one hand, too much mobility leads to rootlessness and broken communities. On the other, not enough mobility leads to poverty and being left behind. It could be that in coal country, there is a tradition of living off the land, and being attached to the land. Yes, coal companies destroyed the land so that no living can be made off it anymore, but the people who live there still cling to their holler.
4 Likes
Most of the retraining wasnât 4-year college, but 2-year associate degrees (paramedics, chefs, etc.). It is far too easy for people with university degrees (and beyond) to underestimate the difficulty of such courses for people with only a high school education and maybe not a great one at that.
3 Likes
Of course youâre right. And as with any ârightâ, their use has consequences. You speak (freely) and others may not like you any more. You assemble, and the population may feel threatened. You own guns, they may get used to slaughter innocents.
The point of rights is not that their use doesnât entail consequences. And you have the right to reproduce, but it may make you poor and sleep-deprived. And if you complain about being broke and tired, it would be perfectly reasonable to be told, maybe donât have any more kids.
1 Like
3 now. One is clearly a trolley, âTrumpLovesPelosiâ, and the other two I am pretty sure didnât click on it, because they seem to be hardcore trumpists (oneâs logo is Trump/Pence 2020).
2 Likes
