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Topic: A Dying Industry -- But They Still Get to Kill Us Post Reply | Post New Topic
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132133
Posted: 09 October 2017 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

WashingtonPost
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14812
Posted: 09 October 2017 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

What's really pathetic is listening to the "free market" types defend a President who wants to bail out a dying industry being killed off by the free market. 
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 09 October 2017 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Part of me thinks the narcissistic bastard is only doing a lot of stuff out of spite (he seemed to hate Obama and have an obsession with him).

Is this the presidential equivalent of "I have a toy but because it belonged to someone I hated, I am going to break it"?

I really detest the man.


Edited by Robbie Parry on 09 October 2017 at 1:45pm
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Eric Sofer
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 3:44am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

As usual, first remove the functional fix in place.... THEN try to find a solution to the problem. Health care, Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program, and on and on... let's screw things back up, and after that, we'll have a yuge solution. Best fix ever.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7467
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 7:37am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Pandering to the coal constituency works in several areas where he needs support. Even though maybe 70k people are employed by coal *now*, there are many who were once coal miners, or their fathers and grandfathers were.

It's filthy, dangerous and deeply unhealthy work, but these people did it for generations.

Dems would be smart to honor that and speak to their dignity. Most of them know coal really won't ever come back, but they need something to believe in. Tragically, Trump is the only one who's been giving them that.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 7:43am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I could be wrong, but couldn't a country come up with a rule where coal workers are given priority in transferring across to non-coal jobs? Am I missing something?

I don't know how the rules work, of course. But there must be similar jobs they could do in more green industries.


Edited by Robbie Parry on 10 October 2017 at 7:44am
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7467
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 8:21am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

You can't really give workers in one industry priority for rehiring if they lack the necessary skills. This is a problem in terms of workforce development.

That said, there are programs to help workers in many industries transition to new careers. Many of them are state programs partially subsidized by federal grants--and a lot of these are being closed down in the new budget, far as I can tell.

So the programs aimed at helping these people will go away or be scaled back.

This is how Trump is looking out for "his people."
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 8:23am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Yeah, I suspected so.

I know there's probably not a direct equivalent in the green sector, but I'd like to think anyone made redundant could be given some sort of priority.

Not just with coal, either. When driverless cars become mainstream, taxi drivers and lorry drivers are going to need to look for work.
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132133
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 8:25am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

It often seems this is all too-little-too-late. Tens of thousands of jobs have disappeared over the centuries, but now, suddenly we are aware of each new one.

I'm reminded of something I read a long time ago, that pointed out the arrival of sound in movies put thousands of piano and organ players out of work, but at the time not many people seemed to worry about it.

Coal's time is past. Instead, it's time for massive education programs, to free those workers, and their children, from their dead end lives.

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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 8:36am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I used to work for HMRC (the UK equivalent of the IRS). I used to input paper tax returns (personal tax and corporation tax). As more and more people uploaded their tax returns digitally, there was less use for people like me to receive tax returns, input the details, etc.

But we didn't realize until it was too late.

I don't know that much about alternative energy, but I know we should be trying to seek alternatives.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7467
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 8:59am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Green energy jobs are a fast-growing sector of the energy industry. It would be helpful to promote them, especially in areas that have been hard-hit by the rise of natural gas (i.e., coal).

Some people will want to get that kind of retraining, others will not. But we need to do more in this area, because the market will not sort it all out for us.
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Aaron Most
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 03 September 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 121
Posted: 10 October 2017 at 11:40am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

And in related news, the automobile makes it's debut!  Better watch out on your morning constitutionals!
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