In 2015, West Virginia had a total personal income (TPI) of
$68,328,638*. This TPI ranked 40th in the United States. In 2005, the
TPI of West Virginia was $47,989,066* and ranked 39th in the United
States.
The people of West Virginia don't understand coal production and how labor is minimized by the industry. I don't know if anyone talks to them about the truth or they like to be scared for their own economic life, but, they are always scared for their jobs.
It is no big deal if there is coal dust covering the local elementary school, but, the most important thing is that coal jobs remain and regulation is putting the industry out of business.
It is an age old paradigm and the people in West Virginia still believe it.
Illiteracy Statistics for US (click here)
West Virginia's rate far exceeds the US rate of 14 percent. I also found very interesting the illiteracy rate of prisoners in the USA at 70 percent.
20% of West Virginians struggle with low literacy levels. (click here)
December 20, 2010
By Jay B. Tabor
You regularly read columns (click here) that state businesses are poised on the state line, only needing the author's expressed cause celebre to be enacted and they will relocate here. Sometimes it's taxes, or it's lawsuits or other reasons. I suspect these are agendas driven by specific groups, already here in the state, trying to loosen their responsibilities to the community.
This is also part chimera. Downstate, the problem, outside of the larger communities, is road access. Hundreds of small towns are located on winding; narrow two-lane roads that traverse mountain after mountain. Unless someone develops a distribution model to tackle that, business in West Virginia will be confined to the cities....
...You continue to hear though, "If it were not for (some pet peeve), we'd be rich beyond our wildest dreams." But for all the benefits, there is a number they dare not speak, do not address and do not want revealed. "Just make my pet peeve go away," is their mantra, not actually working to correct the real problem.
What number could be so intractable that businesses won't consider the state? The illiteracy rate. The rate for the state is 18.9 percent. Here in Berkeley County it's 16 percent. Just as a reference, that puts us on par with Iran and Libya. Jefferson County is 15 percent and Morgan County is 18 percent. Many more residents are struggling to read simple instructions on medicine bottles or this letter to the editor. That 16 percent is as close to criminal neglect by the BOE and public officials as you can get without a hotshot lawyer on your side.
Why is this bad? Because the new, attractive jobs require the combined skills of reading and comprehension....
US Department of Labor statistics on Mining jobs in West Virginia. (click here) The graph below is from 2006 to present. If one went all the way back to the 1900s and before child labor laws the drop off to present day would look like the cliffs of Acapulco.
The people of West Virginia don't understand coal production and how labor is minimized by the industry. I don't know if anyone talks to them about the truth or they like to be scared for their own economic life, but, they are always scared for their jobs.
It is no big deal if there is coal dust covering the local elementary school, but, the most important thing is that coal jobs remain and regulation is putting the industry out of business.
It is an age old paradigm and the people in West Virginia still believe it.
West Virginia's rate far exceeds the US rate of 14 percent. I also found very interesting the illiteracy rate of prisoners in the USA at 70 percent.
20% of West Virginians struggle with low literacy levels. (click here)
December 20, 2010
By Jay B. Tabor
You regularly read columns (click here) that state businesses are poised on the state line, only needing the author's expressed cause celebre to be enacted and they will relocate here. Sometimes it's taxes, or it's lawsuits or other reasons. I suspect these are agendas driven by specific groups, already here in the state, trying to loosen their responsibilities to the community.
This is also part chimera. Downstate, the problem, outside of the larger communities, is road access. Hundreds of small towns are located on winding; narrow two-lane roads that traverse mountain after mountain. Unless someone develops a distribution model to tackle that, business in West Virginia will be confined to the cities....
...You continue to hear though, "If it were not for (some pet peeve), we'd be rich beyond our wildest dreams." But for all the benefits, there is a number they dare not speak, do not address and do not want revealed. "Just make my pet peeve go away," is their mantra, not actually working to correct the real problem.
What number could be so intractable that businesses won't consider the state? The illiteracy rate. The rate for the state is 18.9 percent. Here in Berkeley County it's 16 percent. Just as a reference, that puts us on par with Iran and Libya. Jefferson County is 15 percent and Morgan County is 18 percent. Many more residents are struggling to read simple instructions on medicine bottles or this letter to the editor. That 16 percent is as close to criminal neglect by the BOE and public officials as you can get without a hotshot lawyer on your side.
Why is this bad? Because the new, attractive jobs require the combined skills of reading and comprehension....
US Department of Labor statistics on Mining jobs in West Virginia. (click here) The graph below is from 2006 to present. If one went all the way back to the 1900s and before child labor laws the drop off to present day would look like the cliffs of Acapulco.
