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Honestly, I'd love if our society chose to be more generous and invest in retraining workers across the board. But if someone loses their job in Welch, West Vir

Honestly, I'd love if our society chose to be more generous and invest in retraining workers across the board. But if someone loses their job in Welch, West Virginia, and there's nothing else ... they might need to move. How is it different from steel jobs drying up in Gary IN? Or automobile jobs in Detroit? Or fishing jobs in Maine? Or tobacco jobs in ... wherever tobacco was grown

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ethbro 8y ago
> tobacco The Carolinas and Virginia, I think. And you're right, it's not that different. The only thing I'd say is that I believe steel jobs were a bit slower of a transition. I believe most of the slide took place in the 60s - 80s as lower cost Japanese steel took off? Tobacco is also somewhat replaceable. If you were planting it, you can plant other things. So the glide path is a bit easier.
- philipkglass 8y ago
  Most of the lost coal mining jobs were also lost in decades past: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES1021210001 https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES1021210001 Set the "from" date back to 1985 (earliest year available in this UI). There were 170,500 American coal mining jobs in January 1985. When Obama entered office in January 2009, there were 86,400.
  - ethbro 8y ago
    Point. So I guess the jobs left are the last of the industry. The irony is that production of coal seems to have increased (see top graph; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_St... ) since 1970. Goes to show the power of political narrative vs a reality of automation. But I suppose even for the companies it's a lot easier to blame Washington than tell people you bought a $250,000 machine to replace them.
    - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
      > The irony is that production of coal seems to have increased I think that's the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. But that's all strip mining with giant machines. It's more capital and fewer workers. > But I suppose even for the companies it's a lot easier to blame Washington than tell people you bought a $250,000 machine to replace them. It's more like: somebody else bought a $250,000 machine to replace them five states away.

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ethbro 8y ago

> tobacco The Carolinas and Virginia, I think. And you're right, it's not that different. The only thing I'd say is that I believe steel jobs were a bit slower of a transition. I believe most of the slide took place in the 60s - 80s as lower cost Japanese steel took off? Tobacco is also somewhat replaceable. If you were planting it, you can plant other things. So the glide path is a bit easier.

philipkglass 8y ago
Most of the lost coal mining jobs were also lost in decades past: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES1021210001 https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES1021210001 Set the "from" date back to 1985 (earliest year available in this UI). There were 170,500 American coal mining jobs in January 1985. When Obama entered office in January 2009, there were 86,400.
- ethbro 8y ago
  Point. So I guess the jobs left are the last of the industry. The irony is that production of coal seems to have increased (see top graph; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_St... ) since 1970. Goes to show the power of political narrative vs a reality of automation. But I suppose even for the companies it's a lot easier to blame Washington than tell people you bought a $250,000 machine to replace them.
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    > The irony is that production of coal seems to have increased I think that's the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. But that's all strip mining with giant machines. It's more capital and fewer workers. > But I suppose even for the companies it's a lot easier to blame Washington than tell people you bought a $250,000 machine to replace them. It's more like: somebody else bought a $250,000 machine to replace them five states away.