But, when miners want to complain that the US government is destroying their livelihoods, they need to stop and realize what exactly is changing their way of life. Not the government, not the EPA; it is Wall Street destroying their jobs.
Robots may hold the key (click here for video) to preventing an industrial crisis in a country whose geography makes many key jobs undesirable.
I knew Australia was big, but it didn't really hit me till I stood on a viewing platform hanging over a valley in the Blue Mountains.
As I watched the land fall away below me, giving way to a valley of forest that stretched to the horizon, I could feel thousands of miles of silence sucking me in like a vacuum.
Part of Australia's beauty is also its problem. Its untamed, uninhabited interior contains rich pickings, but there are few who want to go and get them.
"We have a labour shortage in the areas we want them, in agriculture, mining, and other primary industries," Sydney University's professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems Salah Sukkarieh told me....
"Most of the population likes living along the coastline, along the beach," he says....
As a matter of fact, the Obama Administration in it's first term in office, sought to close the mountain top mines because of their destructive results to the environment and water quality to nearby towns. What occurred instead of miners looking for work, was a return to work of miners to work in 'in the ground mines.' So don't blame the Democrats for killing jobs, it is quite honestly the polar opposite, because, Republicans strive for higher profits and kills labor and the minimum wage. Americans need to grow up.
In the real world rather than the political universe most Americans seem to live in today, mountain top mining destroys a work force of miners and reduces it to less than one eighth.
The facts in the real world is that Republicans destroy jobs. They hate labor unions, the Middle Class is a burden until elections roll around and they completely oppose the minimum wage. So, people need to stop hating Democrats because it is they and their current President that have worked the hardest at restoring the economy and good paying jobs.
The Republicans can be understood best when realizing the US House has refused to write an immigration bill or pass the Senate bill on immigration. The Republicans have REFUSED to pass immigration legislation since Reagan, so don't even try it anymore.
August 7, 2014
By Erica Peterson
...Kentucky coal employment (click here) hit its peak—about 75,000 miners—in 1949. Then employment started dropping, bottoming out in 1966, when there were 19,313 coal miners in Kentucky. It picked up again, but unfortunately for Kentucky’s coal industry, the overwhelming employment trend has been downward since about 1979.
In the real world rather than the political universe most Americans seem to live in today, mountain top mining destroys a work force of miners and reduces it to less than one eighth.
The facts in the real world is that Republicans destroy jobs. They hate labor unions, the Middle Class is a burden until elections roll around and they completely oppose the minimum wage. So, people need to stop hating Democrats because it is they and their current President that have worked the hardest at restoring the economy and good paying jobs.
The Republicans can be understood best when realizing the US House has refused to write an immigration bill or pass the Senate bill on immigration. The Republicans have REFUSED to pass immigration legislation since Reagan, so don't even try it anymore.
By Erica Peterson
...Kentucky coal employment (click here) hit its peak—about 75,000 miners—in 1949. Then employment started dropping, bottoming out in 1966, when there were 19,313 coal miners in Kentucky. It picked up again, but unfortunately for Kentucky’s coal industry, the overwhelming employment trend has been downward since about 1979.
This was before the Environmental Protection Agency—under Obama—announced plans to make coal-fired power plants restrict mercury and carbon dioxide emissions. It was also before the EPA began scrutinizing surface mining permits and before the Mine Safety and Health Administration began conducting enhanced coal mine inspections to check for safety violations.
The fluctuations in natural resources-based economies are complicated, and are based on a variety of factors. It may be politically convenient for McConnell and other politicians to focus only on the past decade of Kentucky coal employment, but doing so misses the big picture....
