Coal Plants Keep Shutting Despite Trump’s Order to Rescue Them

[Kiri]

The miners do not want handouts-they want to work. And sure some of them a racist arseholes. But most of them either didn't vote or didn't vote for Trump and their plight shouldn't be dismissed in a cavalier fashion by the irritatingly smug.

It is the same thing though. If you heavily subsidize an industry or artificially prop up demand, like Trump does, then those are essentially handouts. They work for it, sure, but the money keeping them afloat comes from taxes.
If coal miners want to work, then they should re-train. A certain other party wanted to invest heavily into re-training programs for those whose livelihood would be destroyed, but they did not win. Instead, we have a government gutting existing programs to re-train workers and trying to somehow keep the industry afloat, simply because it is the popular thing to do.

[Machismo]

There are a lot of issues around this. However partisan points-scoring around the death of entire communities and a way of life is not something to celebrate in some kind of self-congratulatory shallow gloatfest.

(and no I'm not a fucking Trump supporter)

This is the ending of an industry that is inefficient, and unnecessarily costly. Should we shed a tear every time someone shops at Amazon,m instead of Sears or Best Buy? Are we supposed to lament that you can buy games for less on Steam, instead of going to GameStop?

Of course not, this is technological progress. It's not as if this is coming out of nowhere, the writing has been on the wall since the 1970's. This is the free market at work (hopefully), and I will celebrate it when it occurs. Now, the only real travesty will be if this administration tries to push welfare to help out the coal industry. Let it fail and die off, so we can be better.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

You mean Trump can't change the basic fundamental reality of why coal is being phased out?

[Hilhen7]

Trump made another bad business decision. Shocking!

[Darsithis]

You mean Trump can't change the basic fundamental reality of why coal is being phased out?

He's going to bring back coal, just you wait! It's going to be the most important coal, better coal than other coals. American coal will be the bigly coal that beats the coals of all coals!

[Sky High]

/laughs
/sips his coffee
/continues laughing

[Hilhen7]

He's going to bring back coal, just you wait! It's going to be the most important coal, better coal than other coals. American coal will be the bigly coal that beats the coals of all coals!

America will produce the biggest and cleanest coal. Coal so clean you can see your reflection and eat off of it!

[Enthusiastic Steward]

He's going to bring back coal, just you wait! It's going to be the most important coal, better coal than other coals. American coal will be the bigly coal that beats the coals of all coals!

It's clean coal too. You dig it up, you clean it, there you go clean coal folks. Believe me.

[Daedius]

Good. Say goodbye to dirty, nasty coal.

Have your lame gas fires while I enjoy a cosy coal fire!

[Unholyground]

Maybe those people should pull themselves up by the bootstraps and learn a new trade.

Moving past inefficient and antiquated technologies is a good thing.

While I agree to a point, you cannot just expect someone who has done something for 30 years to magically have the money and ability to change what they did their whole lives, government should buyout the workers and provide them with everything they need if these places are failing.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

They should have voted for Hilary then. You know, the person who offered a real solution, although a tough one for them. Not to mention her ideas on minimum wage, education etc.

Hey. You. Yeah, you, with the common sense. Out. Go on, git. Your kind got no place 'round these here parts.

[Deleted]

You know people's are being destroyed by this, dickhead.

You mean the resurgence in coal miner's (black) lung disease?

[The Stormbringer]

It is the same thing though. If you heavily subsidize an industry or artificially prop up demand, like Trump does, then those are essentially handouts. They work for it, sure, but the money keeping them afloat comes from taxes.
If coal miners want to work, then they should re-train. A certain other party wanted to invest heavily into re-training programs for those whose livelihood would be destroyed, but they did not win. Instead, we have a government gutting existing programs to re-train workers and trying to somehow keep the industry afloat, simply because it is the popular thing to do.

It's almost like this 'other party' was trying to run off of at least some semblance of logic and reason (to move things forward and get people in more modern work), and the one that won was using emotions and feelings (clinging to the past and what people were familiar and comfortable with)... Really makes you think.

[wheresmywoft]

While I agree to a point, you cannot just expect someone who has done something for 30 years to magically have the money and ability to change what they did their whole lives, government should buyout the workers and provide them with everything they need if these places are failing.

Unfortunately, the counties that are affected by this opted to vote for the party that expressly didn't want to do that.

They went with the party that promised to bring coal back.

[Lochton]

To be honest, that was one of the cards the Trumpet shouldn't have used. Coal plants need to be shut down, replace it with better alternatives.

[Kiri]

It's almost like this 'other party' was trying to run off of at least some semblance of logic and reason (to move things forward and get people in more modern work), and the one that won was using emotions and feelings (clinging to the past and what people were familiar and comfortable with)... Really makes you think.

Too bad emotions win you votes in the electoral college, though:/

[The Stormbringer]

Too bad emotions win you votes in the electoral college, though:/

Emotions, poor planning, and bribes. If electoral college votes were actually given out percentage-wise based on the votes that were made in that state (something that happens in a lot of states, but some states are fucking stupid and have a 'winner takes all' policy), then it would actually match up fairly well with the popular vote. As it stands, it's a god damn travesty.

[Kiri]

Emotions, poor planning, and bribes. If electoral college votes were actually given out percentage-wise based on the votes that were made in that state (something that happens in a lot of states, but some states are fucking stupid and have a 'winner takes all' policy), then it would actually match up fairly well with the popular vote. As it stands, it's a god damn travesty.

And Gerrymandering. Can't forget about that staple of the US system.

[Darsithis]

Have your lame gas fires while I enjoy a cosy coal fire!

I prefer nuclear fires, myself.

Though, when camping, we settle for mere coals from wood. Not quite the same, but tasty, nonetheless.

[Machismo]

While I agree to a point, you cannot just expect someone who has done something for 30 years to magically have the money and ability to change what they did their whole lives, government should buyout the workers and provide them with everything they need if these places are failing.

This is something they should have been preparing for their entire lives. It's no different than old people who never planned for retirement, then finding themselves dead broke. People have been saying the coal jobs are going to disappear since before I was born, and I have plenty of gray hairs on my head. In the town I grew up in, it was ranching and logging. As those industries modernized, the small ranches were simply not competitive, and they went away. The same goes for the logging operations. That's why I don't live there, because I saw the writing on the wall.

This was a major issue for Pennsylvania and their steel towns. The government even came in and offered to train those people for free. Almost nobody took them up on the offer, and their economies crashed.