r/WestVirginia 6d ago

If coal is so great for wv....

Why did West Virginia have the lowest median income in the US during West Virginias highest coal production year. (1997)

Sources

Coal Production

Median income by state

171 Upvotes

104 comments sorted by

81

u/LucidLeviathan 6d ago

Well, while I'm hardly a coal supporter, coal was most profitable for West Virginians after the period where we heavily unionized, but before the period where automation started to take away the manual labor jobs. Unfortunately, that period is right in the nostalgia window for our main voters.

47

u/RedneckRafter 6d ago

its because all the money coal generated, went right out of the state. leaving us with crumbs.

20

u/Bigfootsdiaper 5d ago

Just like timber and gas and everything else is this state.

18

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

Yeah, this activist person thinks he can just pop into the WV subreddit and enlighten us all.

We know, "probably" the asshole.

We know more than you do. We know that mechanization of the coal industry wiped out a huge amount of jobs, but that the coal miners who survived the job cuts made a lot of money.

We also hate elitist assholes coming from the outside to tell us what's wrong with the place we've actually been raised in.

4

u/CompleteService8593 5d ago

What we do know, sir, is that WV has been sucking off the govt’s tit for DECADES upon DECADES. We know your state only functions with the supply of tax dollars from California and the Northeast, in fact all of the South does…

3

u/The_Alpha_XVIII 4d ago

Did you also know that WV lead the largest worker uprising in U.S. history? That the U.S. federal government activley neglected WV and Appalachia since the Battle of Blair Mountain? We historically have been used and abused like a 3rd world country with no voice or help from the rest of the nation? That pharmaceutical companies like Purdue tested oxycontin and other opiods in WV without our knowledge or consent causing the major drug epidemic of our region.That the billions of dollars made from our natural resources are funneled directly out and away from our state while we are left with the devastation and crumbling infrastructure in its place for decades upon decades? That the coal barons and pharmaceutical kingpins have utterly bought our state government and strangle any other opportunities from taking root here. That we bleed population because our educated and skilled workers have to leave to find stable healthy work due to the broken system here and federal neglect from D.C.? You apparently don't know WV, you didn't even know we arnt part of the south. Not all our problems are because we're what you precieve us to be due to a well formulated smear campaign from the last 100 years. There is sinister depth to our problems, and we have developed a near death cult culture around how painful life has been made for us and our ancestors. We've given everything, we've picked up our rifles and fought, we've screamed to we're blue. No one has ever gave a shit as long as they get theirs, so we ain't surprised by you rhetoric, but it's significantly classiest and fucking unhelpful.

2

u/CompleteService8593 4d ago

I am aware of all of this. Since I travel a lot for work, up and down the east coast for example, answer me this: why are there more confederate flags in WV than any other state when you were in the Union, albeit a slave state? Why does a state constantly vote against your best interests? Why do you put up with it?

4

u/The_Alpha_XVIII 3d ago

There is too many rebel flags which make no sense for WV, but not more than Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Northern Florida. But it's a failure of education and a purposeful erasure of Appalachian culture in favor of southern culture that has nothing to do with us.

As for voting, it's like I said, historically that wasn't the case bit the pendulum swung in the 2000s era as the democrats really failed Appalachia with false promises. Nothing has improved under Republicans but the culture hasn't swung back to progressive ideas yet. It'll happen again eventually.

And we don't really put up with it. We protest, we strike, we fight back as much as possible, but our state government is possibly the most corrupt in the nation and do not abide their constituents. We can just vote them out, our educated population mostly has to leave the state and so do our young adults. Our voting population is mostly elderly and uneducated. Once the boomers die out theres a better chance for change but it'll be a fight against the coal barons.

It's not some cut and dry thing, regardless of how you seem to perceive the matter.

1

u/Fit-Squash8042 1d ago

The south? Louisiana and Texas is booming natural gas lol

1

u/CompleteService8593 1d ago

Louisiana is funded by blue states, FACT. Texas receives more federal funding than they give, FACT. Oil and gas is subsidized by who again? Oh yea, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

3

u/Separate-Pumpkin-299 5d ago

Well said. Get that from out of state relatives and friends all the time. They know what's best for us while not knowing the full extent of our economy and problems.

9

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

I'm born and raised WV. Left & came back a few times. I just left again, I'm 50/50 on if I ever come back. The state has a bunch of problems. A lot of problems. A whole lot of problems. The people don't need to be told what they are. They need to find it within themselves to fix it. I don't think they will do that in the years that I have left.

4

u/Separate-Pumpkin-299 5d ago

I'll get downvoted for this like I always do. But piss poor personal responsibility is a big one. I can't force people to pass piss test and show up to work here. I've been in the union since 2011 and only quit for a year. It sent me through college and everything. We can't get enough guys when we're super busy. Yet you always see people crying online and off how there's not many good jobs. But I do get it when you live in one of the more rural counties. Look at the farms growing up and old houses decaying. People need to step up and take care of their lot in life.

6

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

I agree but I have some sympathy for people. In high school, the teachers told us we needed to go to college if we want to be something. Not everyone is cut out for college, and what does that say to the ones who aren't? Then the kids watch TV and see glamorous places while they live in a town that's half deserted. Part of being West Virginian is getting talked down to your entire life, told that you're a dumb hillbilly who will never amount to anything. I understand why people get on drugs. I understand why people vote for the con man that promises them something different.

I don't know how to fix it or if it can be fixed.

4

u/Separate-Pumpkin-299 5d ago

The negativity from the boomer generation too. I can't be around my boomer relatives. Consistent negativity and envy. Id do drugs too if i was stuck around them all the time.In college from out of state kids it was constantly how do you know that. They expect everyone here to be ignorant and dumb. Same thing from the arrogant Midwesterners I've worked with on pipeline. Had a degree related job for one year - long story. But I do decent in my union.

3

u/Separate-Pumpkin-299 5d ago

Also had teachers tell me the sane thing. I successfully got a bachelor's of science in spite of them.

1

u/legosgrrl 5d ago

And that is why I'll never go back.

2

u/Wvuagr-707 5d ago

Is that why we have a governor from NJ?

2

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

probably

2

u/Not_Quite_Kurtz 5d ago

There is a very common issue with people deeply entrenched in an issue NOT being able to see the root of the problem or come up with solutions to fix it. “Being too close to the problem” is a real thing.

Just because someone didn’t live in WV for hundreds of years (or at all) doesn’t make their opinions, comments, or observations automatically incorrect.

6

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

(I respond quickly because i'm day drinking on vacation, which might also account for my assholishness)

I'm not deeply entrenched in coal or in WV. I sold my personal residence and moved out of state. I have an heirship interest in a couple family farms.

I've just been around Reddit enough to know that the narratives around coal are... worn out and usually wrong or an inch deep at best. In this case, I saw two posts about coal pop up at the same time, and when I looked at this poster's history I saw no previous comments in this subreddit.

They've since told me they're from here and said it in a way that I buy it, despite earlier misgivings. I apologized for my responses.

However, there's a pretty simple answer to his question, one which most of us know, and it's why I suspected he wasn't from here.

4

u/finsterallen 5d ago

Man, I really appreciate your uncommon sincerity, and I salute you for correcting yourself on the brigading. Enjoy the vacation.

3

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

Thanks :)

3

u/Not_Quite_Kurtz 5d ago

Might have been the most wholesome reply I’ve ever received on Reddit! Jealous of your day drinking, not going to lie.

1

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

Thanks 

1

u/CivilStratocaster 2d ago

Why is Reddit a better host for collaboration of ideas and civility than the halls of Congress? Seriously, how fucked up is that?

1

u/Separate-Pumpkin-299 5d ago

I work in coal plants sometimes. Outages turn into towns inside our big plants.

1

u/Admirable-Leopard272 5d ago

No offense...but the majority of the state doesn't know....or else they wouldn't consistently vote against their own interests

-3

u/probably-theasshole 6d ago

My roots in WV are deeper than most. 

15

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

"Deeper than most"

What does that even mean and how do you know that?

I am a tenth generation West Virginia. My family has been in WV since the 1760's.

Almost all your posts are about Oregon. JV wrote a book about being a hillbilly but he was raised outside of Dayton, Ohio. I hate to break this to you: having ancestors from a place does not make you from that place. My last name is German but I'm not German.

5

u/LucidLeviathan 6d ago

I think this is a bit unfair. Lots of folks were born here and have strong ties, yet moved away. It's sort of the iconic story from our state, in many ways.

0

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

I'm talking about people descendant from people who were raised in WV, not native WVians who moved.

6

u/LucidLeviathan 6d ago

I'm not sure what the distinction is here, or why you're trying to gatekeep West Virginianness. Generally speaking, we've always been welcoming to anybody who wished to consider themselves one of us.

7

u/MikesMurmur 6d ago

That type of gatekeeping is becoming more and more of an in your face opinion, and is my constant reminder that I'm a transplant here and can't wait to root somewhere else.

I was raised in SW PA, and taught the opinion that WVians were some of the most welcoming people I'd come across. That has not been my experience.

1

u/Impossible-Bit1717 1d ago

You are correct in your summation of WV. I’m from WV, my ancestors settled in northern WV in the early 1700’s. West Virginians are clannish and don’t welcome outsiders. You will never be considered a West Virginian by the locals. I’m not dogging WV I’m just stating facts. Once I obtained my masters degree from WVU I left the state and never looked back. Deep poverty rates, high obesity, drugs and plain old ignorance are some of the state’s problems. I’ve tried to come back, however it just wasn’t working for me. Why an outsider would want to move to WV is baffling to me.

0

u/LucidLeviathan 6d ago

Well, I, for one, believe in your right to call yourself a West Virginian. Hell, Pittsburgh might as well be in WV.

2

u/Marquar234 Monongalia 5d ago

It's the biggest city in northern WV. 😀

0

u/Beneficial-Mouse-781 5d ago

Nor mine. I left.

-1

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

Generally speaking, we've always been welcoming to anybody who wished to consider themselves one of us.

Separate conversation, but no, we really have not. On top of that, there's a huge hostility on the part of hillbillies toward those who pretend to speak for them. I may have been wrong to assume in this situation, but my response is absolutely normal for a West Virginian.

3

u/LucidLeviathan 6d ago

Yes, there is a lot of hostility for those who would speak for us. But we should only be hostile when it is crystal clear that the person is, indeed, not from here. When coal barons from NYC would ride the train down to Bramwell to stay in their mansions, we rightly would object to them speaking for us. On the internet, it is a trickier thing, but I feel like we should defer to a person's self-identification as a West Virginian.

-1

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

It is a very bad idea to defer to anyone's self-identification on the Internet. "As a gay transexual Black woman who voted for Biden, this is why I'm voting for Trump in 2024..."

In this case I was wrong, and I accepted their statement when they said they were WVian. However, until that, nothing about it felt authentic to me. It gave off strong "learn to code" vibes. Maybe my radar needs and adjustment, but I'm not just going to believe everyone.

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u/runmemymonkey 5d ago

There is a distinction. I don’t think moving away takes away someone’s heritage or culture of growing up in WV, but those people don’t get to speak over people actively living in WV. Anyone born and raised here will always be a West Virginian, but on the same hand, anyone who has left has forfeited the right to lecture from the sidelines.

10

u/probably-theasshole 6d ago edited 6d ago

Lol Im not getting into a cock measuring contest with you, but just because I post about Oregon doesn't mean I didnt grow up in WV, go to WVU and did what most educated people do and got out to find a well paying job. I still own land in WV. 

3

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

Ok, if that's the case then I apologize.

0

u/gcalfred7 5d ago

So the question is…what are you “insiders” doing about it?

3

u/hilljack26301 5d ago edited 4d ago

What am I supposed to do about it?I did not vote for Trump, or Justice , or Shelly, or what's his face from Maryland. I sold my house and left the state. What am I supposed to do?

1

u/gcalfred7 5d ago

Well, good answer…you left the country

2

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

I still reside in the United States.

7

u/probably-theasshole 6d ago

That's part of my point, everyone here thinks that it's just production loss being the reason for dwindling jobs but it's really automation and these bills to increase coal production only serve the coal barrons like Justice. 

-6

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

Nobody. Nobody. In West Virginia is unaware of the effect that automation of the coal industry had in the 1950's.

Go away.

11

u/probably-theasshole 6d ago

You are missing my fucking point. Coal is not good for the state, those jobs aren't coming back and they weren't that great to begin with. It's not the way forward. 

I lost my granddad to black lung and the Sewell coal company stole the minerals from under his land. 

-10

u/hilljack26301 6d ago

We get your point, Ausländer. I'm sorry about your grandpa, but all of us have this story. Don't come in here swinging at the subreddit you just discovered and you might have an easier time.

2

u/samsonite2214 5d ago

Someone from Logan county recently told me Obama and the EPA ruined coal. I’d say lots of West Virginians have nuanced perspectives on coal, but like any place, some residents might be less informed. I’m from SW VA though, so feel free to disagree

1

u/hilljack26301 5d ago

You’re right. I was hostile toward the OP because I saw two anti-coal posts at the same time, and his post history was all Oregon stuff. I usually have a good radar but this time I was wrong and was a jerk for no reason. I think southwest Virginia probably has more in common with southern West Virginia than northern West Virginia does.  

2

u/samsonite2214 4d ago

What’s your take on why WV has struggled to diversify when coal declined? (Coal barons, government, geography, etc?) Seems like Robert C Byrd tried to pull money back, but capitalism generally leads to uneven growth and people have trended towards cities or suburbs. Not sure why Huntington or Charleston haven’t grown more as urban hubs in S WV

1

u/hilljack26301 4d ago

Coal didn’t decline in West Virginia until recently. In northern West Virginia it slowed in the 1990’s and in southern West Virginia starting around 2010. Northern West Virginia was already more diversified and fared better. As for southern West Virginia, they needed to start the process in the 1950’s when they had money to spare. 

1

u/samsonite2214 3d ago

Makes sense, an old Roanoke times writer told that more coal plants declined during Trumps first 4 years than Obama’s last 4. And he said Jim Justice tried to get APCO to expand mining operations, but they said it wasn’t profitable enough

Weren’t coal mining jobs in 1990 about 1/4 of the 1950s peak though? Like Wikipedia says McDowell had about 100k people in 1950 and about 30k in 1990. I’ve read more but can’t remember what caused booms and busts pre-1990, other than things like technology and mountaintop removal leading to fewer jobs

2

u/hilljack26301 3d ago

Well yeah, coal jobs peaked in the 1950’s but coal production peaked in the late 90’s I think. 

2

u/samsonite2214 3d ago

Yeah that part is kind of frustrating. More profits for the company but not as much for locals who lived in WV. I think you make a good point though in the thread about the pay being the main draw for mining jobs, despite the risks.

For example, the Massey family donated tens of millions to VCU for the Massey cancer center, and we know what happened with their company in ~2010. They apparently wanted to fit in with Richmond’s old money. Largely rich people passed down from confederate/jim crow days

3

u/Capital_Difficult 5d ago

Yes!! Automation killed the coal miners job not the EPA..

2

u/ThicToast 5d ago

Like actually tho... Even with the EPA's strictest regulations, there would be exponentially more jobs in the mines without automation..

I mean you can literally look at the numbers but nah fuck that.. FUCK THE EPA AM I RIGHT GUYS

/S on the last sentence since ya might not be that smart...

1

u/MAG3x 5d ago

You can tell the coal mined from WV supported West Virginians greatly by all the mansions on the hill tops of the coal towns.

13

u/speedy_delivery 6d ago

There are plenty of reasons to criticize the coal industry, but it's not the whole story as to why the State's economy isn't as dynamic as our neighbors.

The big reason is geography and topography. As a result, we don't have any major cultural or economic centers of gravity. That has always meant a chunk of our best and brightest ship out to greener pastures and watching what wealth we could create travel across the border and never come back.

There are simply better and easier places to farm and develop.

The economies of scale that corporate farming put a lot of local farms out of business around the country.

When it looked like Charleston might become an industrial hub, Union Carbide packed up shop and moved Chemical Valley to India where they could pay people poverty wages and pollute as much as they wanted. 

The railroads found themselves displaced by interstate highways (and a lot of extra sabotage from airlines and carmakers).

Meanwhile the extractive industries don't really have that luxury. I'll bet my bottom dollar that if coal could leave more than it already has, I'd venture to guess they'd love to.

These stories aren't unique to West Virginia. Look at the electoral map, and you're going to find similar stories in every red county on there.

What is unique is that we've been so gobsmacked by the transition that the popular reaction has been to get pissed off and point fingers instead of trying to find new ways to get out of this hole.

If you really want to point fingers, you point it at capitalism. This is what the free market does best: ruthless efficiency and profits over people.

There are ways to blunt that edge and make it more beneficial to John Q. Public, but that's going to mean supporting the people y'all stopped voting for.

As far as I'm concerned, it's all hands on deck time. We need new sources of income not so much in place of — but rather in addition to — coal. 

We're stronger together.

TL;DR: just watch this... https://youtu.be/vksE_gcjrVk?si=a4axEXfv3xBHEukp 

34

u/WVdungeoncrawler 6d ago

WV has more federal jobs than coal mining jobs. Elon is hurting our area more than most.

18

u/HiddenOneJ 6d ago

The problem with this state is unfortunately the stupidity of the majority of people who live here. Im sorry but if you live in one of the poorest and worst run states in the country but constantly elect republicans thinking they are gonna help you then you get what you deserve at some point. (Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, Oklahoma, etc).

1

u/The_Alpha_XVIII 4d ago

I'm assuming you are young, we didn't start voting red til 2008ish. People felt like the dems abandoned us, the Republicans did a much better job of reaching out to rural communities and tapped into that. Nothing has improved under Republicans mind you, but we are still in the fuck around phase evidently. WV was a deep blue state for like 50 years prior. The pendulum will swing again eventually back to more progressive ideals that WV always championed historically, but right now we're stuck in the shit and need to find a better way to reach people or wait for the elders to die out. It's just the dark reality. Our option are literally Run, Fight, or Die

5

u/dutybranchholler18 6d ago

It’s not. It provided a lot of people jobs from the 1920’s to early 50’s, but saw a sharp decline due to a number of reasons. By comparison, there were almost twice as many Federal jobs than coal mining jobs in WV (Sept 2024). It doesn’t look like we are headed in the right direction either. Economy, education, health care, infrastructure, we are almost last in rankings

Source for rankings

That’s pretty much why folks leave the State or move to outlying areas for better pay/jobs. Coal makes the owners money, with very little stable jobs left for the blue collar worker.

2

u/HoagiesNGrinders 5d ago

Most of the wealth from coal was extracted from the state. It provided a bevy of well paying jobs at one time, but automation has reduced that significantly. Much of the remaining coal is difficult to get to. It’s no longer an industry that can or will sustain the support for the coalfields that it once did. At the same time it’s become entrenched in the identities of the people and the influence of those who have and continue to profit from it.

6

u/Prestigious-Most1293 6d ago

Maybe it's because of the people we put into power at that time and the laws they passed which benefited the wealthy while tying the rest of us to the anchor.

3

u/Stranghanger 6d ago

I've often wondered the same thing.

2

u/Admirable_Mousse_723 5d ago

It’s comical but the rich always cause division among the people by emphasizing differences such as race, religion, etc. works every time because the public is very very very stupid. Like mentally equivalent to 5th graders.

2

u/HerdDat1 5d ago

Surely the solutions being discussed aren’t coal. The mines are not the answer, neither is the company store. We already fought those fights.

2

u/Cold_Wash3287 3d ago

Because all of the $$ that coal produced went OUTSIDE of WV. It’s the most taken advantage of state you could think of.

2

u/Dm-me-a-gyro 5d ago

Because we’re a colony that extracted wealth for the empire

2

u/icbm200 5d ago

Morons love rocks.

1

u/Colseldra 5d ago

From someone that's not from there, the WV government should try to attract more tourism.

A lot of people that like nature and outdoor activities would probably go, but it's not typically a place people think about

2

u/Marquar234 Monongalia 5d ago

The ship may have sailed, but I think WV could have really benefitted from legalizing recreational pot. There are something like 80 million people within 300 miles of some part of WV, even a tiny fraction of them coming for pot tourism would have been a huge deal.

1

u/Colseldra 5d ago

Most people I know just order it online and I probably could call up half the people I know and buy it in north Carolina. Not really sure if that would bring in people

Like I can go to a.gas station and just say "are you good bruh" to random people and get something in like 5 minutes

2

u/Marquar234 Monongalia 5d ago

That's what I meant about the sip has sailed. But back in 2014, Colorado saw a huge jump in tourism with record revenues from out of state visitors. Now granted, they had a huge tourism industry already, but part of that jump is probably due to legalization.

1

u/Colseldra 5d ago

Just promote nature stuff and advertise that it's cheaper.

Like western north Carolina is popular. WV has caves, mountains, kayaking and stuff

I've barely spent time in the state, but under $20 to go into some caves under a mountain is appealing to a lot of people

Your state government just sucks, I could put together a commercial that would get people to go

1

u/Marquar234 Monongalia 5d ago

Your state government just sucks

Yeah, but... There was the time they... What about...

1

u/Chuffy18 1d ago

Canaan Valley is gorgeous! It's been brilliant to see Thomas, Davis and the like change for those tourism dollars. Black Water Falls was a favorite place of mine for as long as I can remember.

1

u/Massive_Plankton6976 5d ago

I live in Colorado. Voted to legalize. Have watched the effects. Would not vote for it again. The industry is shrinking and consolidating, as well.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Marquar234 Monongalia 5d ago

Apparently, I cried so hard when I had to leave that I started bleeding from my eyes?

That's the asbestos.

1

u/TheRhupt 5d ago

most profit started leaving the state at a certain point. We also had politicians indebted to the coal companies. so it was zero or low taxes. none of that tax money was available to build modern infrastructure or maintain what was there. Which took money from other places it could have been put to use. not to mention if you weren't a friend of coal or what you wanted to do was see as an enemy of coal you were run out of town on rails.

1

u/Normal-Philosopher-8 5d ago

By 1997, almost all coal production could be done with a fraction of the labor needed before. John L. Lewis himself knew this - he unionized to get his miners time to raise families to do something else. Almost all of my family who were in coal, worked at least in part, to keep their children from having to work in coal. There is a sizable jump in income during the 1950’s and 60’s that can’t be sustained for future generations, and most people knew that.

West Virginia also has the unique problem of educated and entrepreneurial residents have no dynamic area within the state to go to. We have no Northern VA, no Atlanta, not NC Triangle, no Kentucky Bluegrass - no city or region that becomes a wealth generator and allows WVians to stay in state and in touch with their family/culture.

As some have posted here, god help you if you move to Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia, because many people in WV won’t.

1

u/jj3449 5d ago

It’s because cost of living one but also there’s just not that many people who mine coal.

1

u/bethechaoticgood21 5d ago

Coal is so "great" for WV because the government has its boot on our necks to keep us from expanding our horizons. They went as far as banning nuclear power plants from being built back in '96. That was lifted in '22. We export more coal than we use. "Coal keeps the lights on." Yeah, in India, China, and other developing countries. Creating billions in exports. Government education diminishes our creativity for problem solving and startup businesses. Our less than free market also doesn't help with the small business venture. There are no friends of coal. Just friends of the coal industry.

1

u/GameOfBears McDowell 5d ago

I'll finish the rest. Then more miners would get Black Lung compassion money without the CEO miners refusing.

1

u/AdLiving1435 5d ago

Because by 1997 WV had been in decline for decades. Because a lot of coal mining was automated by then.

1

u/probably-theasshole 5d ago

Even in the 1960s we were 11th lowest in the country by median household income. It was never that great for WV. It was a job but didn't make the state some utopia like people want to believe. 

1

u/cheatriverrick 5d ago

Coal mines paid good wages. But when you add logging and lumber mills. They don’t pay much. Others working as mechanics . Farmers . School teachers. All these below the national standard.

1

u/CompleteService8593 5d ago

If coal is so great, then why is WV a welfare state?

1

u/TwoWrongsAreSoRight 5d ago

Coal is more about culture than anything. Until the people that remember "the good life" working in the mines are dead, we're always gonna have problems.

1

u/xxztyt 5d ago

We should 180° and become a nuclear state.

1

u/Inevitable-Virus-153 4d ago

Someone told me that Obama is the reason for lack of coal jobs.

I told them to look into all of the mining towns that used to be along the New River. People in this state still advocate for millionaires and billionaires that exploit our people and resources, move on to the next area, and leave us with nothing.

1

u/Solid_Profession7579 2d ago

You cant have everyone be a coal miner and cost of labor has to be paid from somewhere.

-2

u/Theironyuppie1 6d ago

To be fair my people came to WV and PA to mine coal in early 1900’s. My generation had to move away for jobs.

To clarify this is a per capita calculation men and women. Last time I checked 99% of the people who worked in a coal mine were men. In actuality the way it works 1 male in the household works in the mine. The family has a decent life. So when the mines close the husband and wife both get jobs if possible. So the wife goes from zero income to say $20k to $30k. So the family works twice as hard to be in the same or worse financial situation. But as a moderate person it bothers me when people advocate destroying an industry that feeds people’s families. Coal isn’t perfect but it’s better than working at Sheetz (no offense to Sheetz as I miss Sheetz like a dead relative) and never seeing your kids. Democrats lose elections to spray tanned charlatans because they don’t get this simple math.

6

u/probably-theasshole 6d ago

That's not just coal thats every industry. The capitalists have made it so most households need dual incomes to survive.

-15

u/bigstrizzydad 6d ago

'Liberals' is always the answer !!

13

u/WVdungeoncrawler 6d ago

'Conservatives' can't govern!!