The tragedy isn’t the death of the coal industry; it’s a destructive practice that has dire consequences for both the health and well being of the coal workers and the planet as a whole. The tragedy is the consequence of that industry’s death on the local economy, which is exactly what the job retraining program was created to mitigate.
True, the tragedy overall is the loss of the primary industry and all that it brought ($$).
I see what you did, there.
Is it safe to say you support a Fuckocratic form of governance?
I get real frustrated by willful irresponsibility too.
“It’s not socialism when I do it!”
The thing is these “retrainment programs” are just not very practical. In the 1980s we supposedly were going to retrain ex-steel workers for lucrative computer careers. That didn’t really pan out. It may be foolish to imagine that coal is coming back, but it isn’t really any more realistic to imagine that very many miners can really be trained to be programmers or nurses.
I agree, I could never realistically imagine that as an out come, or goal.
So what else of the other >2000 sorts of jobs they could be trained to do that aren’t the sort that require 8 years of college, might be responsibly imaginable? Any ideas, becase yeah, programming and nursing seem like a HUGE stretch of the imagination. Nearly as ludicrous as being retrained as a miner.
I’ll take that compliment.
Maybe not the way they’d hoped, but if any of those former steel workers are still working today it’s a pretty good bet that they use computers as part of their jobs.
Or they’re just too stupid to learn Java programming.
I heard a segment on NPR about one of the programs. The retraining was for other energy industry jobs like oil, gas, wind. Seems to make sense on the surface and the program claims it brings back something like 87 dollars back to the community for every one it spends.
And yes, Trump is giving it the axe, at least last I heard.
Maybe, maybe not.
Coal mining isn’t a low-skill pick and shovel job these days. It’s heavy machinery and explosives.
Also, there is quite a lot of employment in the solar industry now. Much more than coal mining.
There’s so much culture about the coal industry and I can’t think of any bits that encourage people to stay and hang out in coal country…
But in the 90s I taught A+ courses at the Ford plant that was shutting down. Of a class of 8, 6 stuck it through and got the certification, which pretty much guaranteed a job, at least at CompUSA as a bench worker.
Half of those guys never touched a computer before the training class. They wouldn’t have ever become computer programmers, but computer techs? Assembly and repair are transferable concepts.
The market is not controlled by an invisible hand, it is controlled by billionaires and hundred-millionaires. I thought this was pretty obvious?
It is today. the decline of coal has occurred over the same time frame as that rapid expansion of wealth at the top, more or less. I was hoping the invisible middle finger would be the take home part - which I did not explain at all. It’s more or less what you said - it’s not controlled by some paternalistic hand at all, it’s all FUCK YOU POORS!
Morgan, Rockefeller, Rothschild, etc. etc… There are so many examples of ultra-wealthy families who have significantly disproportionate control over our society, I would say that it’s always been this way. The USA was founded by mercantilists, backed by extremely rich and powerful royals. While wealth stratification has increased to ludicrous levels, upward mobility is more possible these days, from what I can tell.
Anyway, late stage capitalism, plus climate change, plus technological wonders like machine minds… Things, they are a-changin’. Humans are a fundamentally responsive species, and these pressures will force us to respond. I like to hope it pushes us in a better direction.
to get to always, I’ll ask you to go back to before the industrial revolution and coal based economic explosion which fed those fortunes?
Always is more than 150 years, but I like the direction you’re going in.
The American colonies were, yes. The USA did not have the support of powerful royals, anywhere, when it was founded. We had France, and they had killed their royals and scared the rest of em real good.
not in coal country, apparently? Thanks Nicky.
Anyway, late stage capitalism, plus climate change, plus technological wonders like machine minds… Things, they are a-changin’.
Indeed. People, pretty much the same for 10,000 years though.
For what they are about to receive, may they be truly grateful. (snicker)
Maybe, maybe not. I would argue that the consciousness of humans in indigenous tribes, or ancient Egyptian civilization, was probably radically different than our own. Hell, the consciousness of people before TV and cinema was radically different. The 20th and now 21st centuries are times of significant change for the species. I’m quite curious to see how it all goes.