Obama Didn't Kill Coal, the Market Did

sharingfantasies said:

I understand the coal miners side. It is their lifestyle and their job. It is their way of feeding their families. I understand that they have some deep trust that Trump is going to single-handedly open the mines again.

I understand that the market for coal has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades, if not longer, so many houses and businesses wouldn't be able to use coal even if it was being produced again at the amounts it was being produced before.

What I don't understand is, given how difficult and deadly working coal mines is, why coal miners wouldn't want to be trained in doing something else. Something less hazardous to their health. How do they figure they can support their families if they are dying of lung disease or caught in a cave-in? If they are being given an opportunity to improve their lives, the lives of their families, their children, why do they want the mines reopened?

I guess it comes back to the lifestyle. "My family has worked in the mines for generations so I should also" thinking. But then I want to shake them and say, "Your family has died because of those mines for generations, that doesn't mean you have to also."

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It has more to do with identity than it does with the actual job. It doesn't matter that they could get blown up, get black lung, or have a mountain fall on them. They identify has "hard working Americans" and not "lazy liberals/blacks/eggheads/etc."

Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas is a good place to start for an answer.

Buggy Whip weavers faced the same problem at the turn of the 20th Century. Only they weren't tearing the earth apart and dumping the waste in river valleys!

The trick will be if the West Virginia Government will look after the displaced miners and develop another industry that can employ those rednecks so they don't get up to mischief, like trucking Weed to Chicago?

Maidboy said:

Yes. Follow the money all the way to the CEO's Cayman Island bank account.

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Don't forget the pol's who legislate to allow and enable this bullshit. They didn't get their mega millions on their gubbmint paycheck I gayRontee!

Maidboy said:

So you concede that coal generated electricity is dirty?

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Oh yea, I never argued otherwise.

Maidboy said:

What about wind turbines?

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Still pretty heavy manufacturing, bad for birds but better than others options I suppose. Personally I think geothermal options would be the cleanest but idk how the economics would work on a large scale or in places that are less geologically active and would need thousands of feet of drilling.

Hydro electric is good shit too despite it trashing aspects of various river ecosystems.

Maidboy said:

Okay, now you're just being silly. I did temp work for a major power company (producing training and project management videos) and the workers were paid very well indeed,

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They get paid well....for slaves. The real money makers wouldn't get out of bed for what they make.

Maidboy said:

most were pretty conservative politically

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That may be true.

But I find it hard to believe these people were politically against their self interest.

People in the green energy sector, get their paychecks from (D) and anyone with half a brain cell knows it. Without (D) protecting their market, making their product more economically viable by subsidizing it and regulating against significantly cheaper fossil fuels and nuclear energy, they know they are fucked.

It's like finding (D)'s that work for Halliburton or Colt....philosophically they might be left, but at the end of they in that voting booth they are statistically microscopic, because money.

Maidboy said:

and almost all were enthusiastic about wind and solar generated electricity.

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It's cool tech! I've got some of it myself and I can see how working with it would be an EE's wet dream but it's not economically viable to the masses without (D) support.

So when it gets down to the nitty gritty and it's feel good ideology bullshit vs. your paycheck guess how damn near every one of them will vote?

That paycheck wins by a landslide....damn straight.

Maidboy said:

And all were keenly aware of the need to upgrade our woefully inefficient electricity grid.

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Yea but doing that would take away one of the pol's favorite carrots....infrastructure!!

Both sides dangle that shit in front of us EVERY 2 years.....none of them ever do a fuckin' thing about it. As soon as either side gets power they just go whoring it out for all they can until there is an emergency like the Oroville dam here in NorCal.

Just like HC, Education and pretty much any other thing they can it's nothing but shit talk and fuck fuck games until there is a crisis.

None of them EVER take a second to do right by the people.

dan_c00000 said:

It has more to do with identity than it does with the actual job. It doesn't matter that they could get blown up, get black lung, or have a mountain fall on them. They identify has "hard working Americans" and not "lazy liberals/blacks/eggheads/etc."

Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas is a good place to start for an answer.

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The question is, why can't you and there rest of the left just let them?

Why do you and the other regressive leftist feel the need to fuck with the people of W. Virginia and their way of life?

Or Kansas? Or Texas?

You and yours want to fuck with everyone's ability to make money as bad as (R)'s want to fuck with everyone's sex life and doctor visits.

Why can't you just mind your own fuckin' bidnizz?

BotanyBoy said:

The question is, why can't you and there rest of the left just let them?

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Let them what? Be coal miners? It was the market that killed coal. The market that you love did it. Actually no, it was natural gas. Or fracking.

dan_c00000 said:

Let them what? Be coal miners?

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Yes.

dan_c00000 said:

It was the market that killed coal. The market that you love did it. Actually no, it was natural gas. Or fracking.

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Government regulation =/= market.


Sorry...no matter how badly you wish it was, it's just not true.