China is turning away from a reliance on fossil fuel by turning to scientific and technological research into green renewables wind, sun, water, geological including better battery and AI solutions. Driven by the healthcare polluting deadly impact on it's people.
Deng Xiaoping's revolution adopted socialism with Chinese characteristics aka capitalism. Along with democracy with Chinese characteristics aka a collective term limited leadership model.
Xi Jinping threw Chinese democracy away by claiming the right to rule with the Mandate of Heaven until death of a Chinese emperor in the mode of Mao Zedong.
While maintaining a corrupt crony capitalist plutocrat oligarch form of Chinese socialism for the benefit of the' tigers' instead of the 'flies'.
1
Relatives of mine lived in a Pennsylvania coal town that is now cow pastures. Coal brought people there, and the end of coal meant that no one stayed. The descendants of the people who mined the coal are doing fine. Somewhere else.
4
Two points in the article were telling: their overwhelming support for Trump (hence presumably not welcoming to immigrants), and the only Mexican immigrants in town had their own business, a restaurant.
As The Economist points out (see https://www.economist.com/special-report/2019/11/14/how-migration-makes-the-world-brainier) "Everywhere, immigrants are likelier than the native-born to start their own business"
8
everyone be sure to read the post by the person who went to the websites for the town real estate market and the high school ...
4
I grew up here and sadly the people that live here stopped the area from recovering.
Rick Boucher who represented this area had plans to build the Coalfield Express which would of enabled people and businesses easier access to the area. He also tried to bring more variety of businesses to the area as well to make up for job loses due to the lower demand for coal.
Because of Boucher’s support for President Obama he was voted out of office. Once his Republican replacement was put in office the Coalfield Expressway was never finished and no major businesses have come to the area.
It’s unlikely the people that live here will vote for a Democrat to represent them and unlikely the Coalfield Expressway will be finished.
13
Revitalizing and rebuilding rural downtown areas is how developers secure federal funding and right-wing business people go about “helping” their rural friends and neighbors. Pockets are get lined and time marches on. I’m surprised no one sold Grundy on installing a trolley line.
4
Two points: First, as heartbreaking as such economic upheavals are, the fact is that these communities haven’t been around for more than about 8 generations and were founded by economic migrants. This country is littered with ghost towns, and these towns may just have to face the same future. Second, note the beginning of the hollowing out of coal industry jobs - it long pre-dates the mythical “war on coal.” The real war on coal jobs was conducted by the coal industry itself, with mechanization and the replacement of deep mining with mountaintop removal and strip mining. Coal miners have been played by the coal industry for over 100 years. The best thing these folks can do for themselves and their children is to get out. Gain some marketable skills and go where you’re labor is valued. It’s a hard truth.
10
Wow. I read through so many comments and the "blame" placed on the residents of these small towns is shocking. Not everyone can live in big cities, nor should everyone. Maybe that's an oversimplification of the comments but that's what I'm hearing.
I grew up in Big Stone Gap, VA, not far from Grundy. We were transplants from PA, not far from NYC. My parents stayed until their deaths but my siblings and I all left. We are all educated and left in search of employment. We had no choice. There were no jobs and there was no interest in bringing in jobs.
But the people that stay often don't have that choice. This is their home, often the only thing they know. I sympathize with the lack of jobs, the lack of interest from the outside and the feeling of malaise that comes from not being productive - whether for your family or community. But to blame them? That's not fair and quite mean.
I have watched over decades how "help" in the form of handouts (call them what they are! don't sugar-coat them!!) have not helped at all. Sure, you might put food on the table but not healthy stuff - we stopped that years ago... Sure, their housing is covered but the housing is often substandard. That's what we get when the government gets involved. Just keep them happy with the bare minimums. But what about jobs? What about them working to get off the hand-outs?
You know why? There aren't enough votes for Washington to care. Please don't blame the people. They have a boot on their throats.
8
Apply intensive management to the local forests where improvement cuts produce biomass subsidized by the Federal government at $.02 per Lb. Certified sustainable harvests only. Lots of jobs for Foresters, operators, techs, beaurocrats, drivers and ecologists. Skip the grants.
3
In reading the article I noticed that the the jobs that Mr. Ward and his friends mention people were leaving town for were for jobs that require no training, working in Toyota auto factory or fracking jobs.
I find it interesting the aversion to finding a job that requires extra training beyond high school. I’m talking not just college but also technical or trade training.
This just not a rural phenomenon, growing up in working class neighborhood in Philadelphia I saw the same thing.
It comes off a bit like stubbornness or maybe laziness but the results are the same- limited opportunities and limited income.
7
It’s unfortunate and unfair. But we all have to soldier on. A similar story was written about the US auto industry in the 1970s and 80s. I recall many workers and families having to leave the Midwest and start anew in a places like Texas. Would love to see a history on how they fared. Good luck to the coal families. I don’t blame them for buying Trump’s snake oil. At least he acted as if he cared, even though it was only a smokescreen.
3
@Cloud 9 - I blame them. These people watched him mock a handicapped person, brag about sexually assaulting women, denigrate the parents of a fallen soldier and spew racism. How could they be stupid enough to think he cared for them and how could they be cruel enough to support someone like that?
12
I recently read "Our Towns" by Jim and Deb Fallows. I can't recommend it, but it's full of stories of small, forgotten towns revitalizing themselves using whatever advantage they could obtain. There are appeared to be a few ingredients - first, some built-in attraction - a nearby university, military base, or natural beauty. Second, local, private wealth interested in funding development. Third, local political leadership. The third seemed most important; leadership with an unshakable sense of destiny about the particular town. With that sort of leadership, accommodation can be made to promote local business, tax breaks and incentives for companies to germinate, "public-private partnerships" to nurse new businesses along. Shannon Blevins may be the person to assume the leadership role, and the story mentions local barons who have funded development and that there is natural beauty among the Appalachian chain - who knows, there may be hope for Grundy yet.
3
No. Grundy can't repair itself. The people need to accept this and take appropriate measures.
The linked article beneath this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/us/appalachia-coal-women-work
- about how women in similarly-depressed towns are going back to school and qualifying as nurses - may offer a solution. Nursing is a skill that can move everywhere.
The key sentence: A state program for miners’ families not only paid tuition but, critically, also provided money for living expenses.
I don’t see why such a program has to be limited to miners’ families. Open it to anyone who meets the income and aptitude requirements. Nobody is going to live high off the hog on the kind of living expenses these programs give, but they’ll have a roof over their heads and the prospect of living wage, full-time employment anywhere in the US upon graduation. (Nursing, need I mention, is also open to men).
If the men don’t want to become nurses, I’d like to mention another option offered by someone else here: once your family has relocated, take up an apprenticeship job in a skilled trade in a place where those skills are needed. You earn as you learn, and they can’t ship plumbing/electrician jobs overseas. It’s difficult to automate a plumbing repair.
9
@Alex - Nursing, phlebotomy, X ray technicians etc. There are all kinds of jobs in the medical profession.
Job training is the key. Thirty years ago I was part of a training program that provided tuition, gas and childcare. It was a public/private partnership.
If graduates got a job within a certain number of weeks after completing their training, the state reimbursed the company who organized the training.
This gave the company good incentive to match applicants with the right training and help them succeed.
I paid the state back dozens of times over in taxes.
3
@DR
That's the kind of training/education that works. It worked for you. An apprenticeship (no tuition, no childcare) worked for me, since I had no kids. Sure, I served tables throughout and lived on homemade grilled cheese sandwiches (the best).
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/us/mined-minds-west-virginia-coding.html
This seems to be the latest iteration: no training, soak up state grants, and leave town after promising and delivering no jobs.
Appalachian School of Law seems to be that kind of law school. 144 avg LSAT, 44% of eventual grads pass the bar (many drop out), costs $50k yr, probably most of whom wind up in debt for the rest of their lives.
3
@Alex - I'm glad to hear another success story.
I've never understood why there weren't more programs like the one I attended.
I'm eternally grateful for the chance I was given and I've done my best to pay it forward.
Best wishes to a fellow cheese lover.
4
“Overwhelmingly, they support President Trump, who promised to bring coal back. But it doesn’t look as if they have much faith in the promise. As Hoot Dellinger said, leaning over the edge of his booth, “This community will never prosper again.”
Their support never really had anything to do with coal, jobs, or the economy.
11
It's pronounced "BuckHANon" County.
Lived and practiced law there in the late 70's, during the boom.
It's absolutely beautiful. So are the people, especially the Streets and the McGlothlins.
They are kind, and they care, but there is nothing they can do.
Everyone saw the end of the boom, years before it happened. The world is always changing, and they knew it.
They're tired, they're desperate and they're stuck. And, sadder still, they're typical. They have their share of narrow-sighted faults, but fault doesn't matter. It doesn't change where they are.
How do we include them in the future? I do not know. They could so easily be the rest of us.
My heart goes out to those wonderful folk.
13
@rds - They weren't kind enough to care about any of the people Trump has harmed.
7
Here's one possible solution for towns like Grundy: Think Tennessee Valley Authority but substitute nuclear. Quite simply, the solution to decarbonizing energy is nuclear and hydro. France and Sweden proved it. Do the math. Nuclear decarbonizes energy 12 times faster than wind or solar. (Science, August 5, 2016) The energy "mix" of wind, solar, hydro, backed up by carbon-based natural gas is politically popular but impractical because it adds complexity to energy generation and distribution while lowering energy density. Never in the history of energy technology have we gone backwards in complexity an density, until now with wind and solar.
For coal country, we need a national priority infrastructure program like the TVA that creates a nuclear energy technology and production hub in Appalachia centered around Oak Ridge, TN. The area is relatively close to major eastern cities, there's plenty of water for cooling, minimal history of earthquakes. It's all there. Turn coal country into a clean, carbon free nuclear power center. You'll rebuild the economy and move America forward on climate change.
6
@Paul Jacobson
Nuclear power is probably already more expensive than wind or solar and getting more so with time. It takes a very long time and huge up-front investment to build, costs a lot to decommission at end of life and has huge waste disposal and security issues. See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-nuclearpower/nuclear-energy-too-slow-too-expensive-to-save-climate-report-idUSKBN1W909J
Wind and solar have their issues too, of course, but they are being addressed at a faster rate than nuclear power issues.
California ratepayers are stuck with paying utility company (PG&E) many $billions just to decommission their nuclear power plant.
Investing in nuclear power is a very big, very risky bet, and furthermore I don't think it will bring too much in the way of permanent jobs to this town.
1
They can use windmills and solar like the rest of America and learn to live with less . There toxic and deadly man made mountains of coal ash are destroying our water systems and air. There is a coal dump in Fell Township ,Pa and has been polluting the air for decades. They can’t put it out. It caught on fire and it can’t be put out. To continue to dig for more of this toxic product those coal miners are living in a mortal sin state slowly making all of us sick. There is arsenic ,mercury lead ,cadmium all in these coal ash piles.
6
Why not try yo build solar and wind farms. Is it possible to farm any of these lands? Build hot houses and grow plants, vegetables, flowers to sell to market? Sounds like an opportunity for businesses, local, state government to work with citizens to create growth..
3
This is not an American phenomenon, this is a global phenomenon. The alleged needs of global corporations and financial industry has trumped all of the world's citizens needs and wants. All citizens have been subjugated to a second class except the 1 percent, for business.
8
The tragic commitments of Conservatism are the promises that Conservative thinkers and leaders make to so many average people:
that they have the right to stay the same;
that the stories and myths of their lives are more important than the realities and facts of their lives;
and that they have the right to demand that government protect and support this magical thinking.
This is what it looks like in the end.
12
I have sympathy for the people of Grundy who are watching their way of life vanish. However, the sad reality is that (1) coal is going away for both economic and environmental reasons; (2) the geography of that area does not lend itself to uses other than coal - it is rugged terrain with poor soil; has small winding roads many miles from major interstates, and is 90 miles from the closest major airport.
Appalachians tend to have an insular sense of family and community, so they want to stay where they and their families are. Unfortunately, that culture must yield to the ability to make a living that isn’t based on subsistence-level government benefits and aid. History, and even our relatively young country, are littered with ghost towns. The younger generations need to move on. Even though I live in a prosperous area, all of my adult children have followed career opportunities wherever they are, and as a result we are scattered around the U.S. Like it or not, they also must start thinking that way. As a taxpayer, I am more than happy to support job training and education, but I shouldn’t be expected to subsidize a dying coal town just because they wish the past would return.
156
My father's side of the family were all coal miners in far Southwest Virginia. I know this area well. They worked mines, and some even owned small coal operations. But when my father was old enough to go into the mines for real, they told him, "No!" and sent him to Tidewater to learn a trade, building ships.
Ultimately the family went back, not to the same coal towns, but to other Southwest Virginia's rural areas. And we brought with us an urban sensibility, the open mindedness that comes with living some place else, and skills that were flexible.
My feeling is that these towns can reinvent themselves. But not with closed minds— and closed minds are abundant in rural areas. When you combine a narrow point of view, with insular skepticism, and, a rejection of enlighten thinking, you simply cannot move forward — ever. That's why these economic initiatives are failing. Because at the end of the day, it's not really hope (or a pandering president) that you need to succeed. It's the ability to let go of the past, and open your minds to different thinking and to different people. Most importantly you have to "invest" in your community, not just "work" to put money in your own pocket. This is especially true if you don't want the government to do it for you.
Sadly, my bet is that it will never happen in Grundy until the Dairy Queen gang is gone.
120
@DP
Your family's story is not that different from my family's story. I have heard many like it. There is always a point where a decision is made, a family member who makes a leap that opens the path for the rest. My grandmother was pulled out of school when she was 11 and put to work in a factory. She swore that none of her children would work in the mills or the factories and that they all would have education. Now we are her grandchildren and great grand children and we have professors, doctors, business people, teachers, and millionaires. My family is the American Dream.
25
Same story here, both sides of my family are from the area; the grandparents decided to get out in the thirties, but get out was to the big city of Kingsport (ha ha). Now we’re a family full of lawyers and doctors and other professional types spread out all over the nation; my advice to anyone living there is to move.
19
My parents (who were born and raised in WV on the Ohio River) spent a year in Kingsport, TN, in 1948, when I was 3 years old. It was the start of my family's migration on to Cleveland, and eventually to the Baltimore/DC area. My 4 sibs and I went to good public schools and universities, becoming engineers, nurses, lawyers, and business owners. The 13 grand children are spread out around the world, working in finance, health care, and academia. Millions of "the coastal elites" disparaged by the GOP and resented by residents of towns like Grundy, trace their family roots to Appalachia.
14
I don't know what the answer is for places like Grundy (central PA has many similar), but Wal-Mart is not it. As the article states, retail and hospitality jobs do not replace family-sustaining wages. The reliance on giant corporations like Wal-Mart speaks to the denigration of entrepreneurship that such companies have wrought. The truth is that coal is finished, and those who have made their bundle are, with a few exceptions, walking away. Those who remain lack the vision to think outside the corporate box.
The fossil fuel industry refuses to diversify and invest in renewable technologies, but rather relies on government subsidies and tax breaks to keep their antiquated and environmentally disastrous practices going. Instead of investing in the American locales that they have already devastated, corporations like Exxon-Mobile have partnered with Russia's oligarchs and Putin himself (i.e., Rosneft and Gazprom) in extending their destructive practices into the arctic. Leveraging huge amounts of capital (both public and private) in pursuit of a quick buck chiefly lines the pockets of folks like Rex Tillerson, Charles Koch, and their stockholders.
100
@Richard Exactly right, the people and their leaders, especially, like Mitch McConnell, have profited so greatly by the area's reliance on coal - and the refusal to face the reality of its demise - that they know no other way and are unwilling, to try anything else. Further, because of this complete and utter reliance on coal (forced upon them by the coal companies and their bribed politicians,) their leaders have played down the need for education, which is their only salvation for dependence upon others.
10
Whaling built towns and drove prosperity along the Eastern seaboard. When electricity replaced whale oil, those towns declined, and coal boomed in places like Grundy.
Once, abundant rivers and streams powered mills in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Those factories moved South, where they enjoyed cheap labor and lower costs.
Many mill towns in New England never recovered, and though the South has attracted new manufacturing, millions of jobs went abroad and may never come back.
Companies will always chase profitability, leaving workers behind. Technology will continue to disrupt and displace. And throwing millions at the problem won’t change either of those realities.
139
You've essentialized this aptly times a thousand. It is ahistorical to think there is something novel about changing economic, technological, environmental or cultural circumstances dictating population migration. It is demonstrably the norm, and in many ways the story of the US's growth and dynamism of the last few centuries. The only sin here is throwing good money after bad trying to beat back fortune's wheel.
21
@Elizabeth A
Your comment is just like one I wrote. But New England has picked itself up and started again repeatedly. I wonder if the levels of education are what made the difference?
14
When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, I was living in a small NE Ohio town. A classmate of mine who worked at a local grocery store was blessed with the honor of a full tuition scholarship to a prestigious private university. Everybody was thrilled for him – except the manager of the grocery store. During the months leading up to graduation, the manager kept after my classmate to turn down the scholarship and instead stay at the grocery store to be trained as an assistant manager. The store manager kept telling my classmate that “college is a waste of time and doesn’t guarantee a living” and in a passive-aggressive manner disparaged my classmate’s accomplishment, repeatedly asking him “If you have a scholarship, why do you need this job?” Explanations about the cost of campus housing and books and supplies fell on deaf ears. My classmate went on to a successful career in engineering; the grocery store has been closed for over 30 years.
The small-town “stay for security” myth and disparagement of accomplishment doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon; I’m glad that younger people are choosing to ignore it. If there is no opportunity where you grew up, you need to go where it exists. Otherwise, you run the risk of a stagnant, unsatisfying life.
150
@eheck
The terrible truth. These small towns are there for a reason - geography, resources, etc. Times change, different needs. Whether a new means of survival is possible is dependent on many variables. Pittsburgh is one of the most successful transitions I can think of - but they always had a lot going on, not just coal and steel. It is not an easy call as some here suppose.
P.S. I had to leave my small town as above and the population is now 50% what it was. We all had to bail out whether we liked it or not. Sad reality.
22
@eheck I appreciate you sharing this story - it's the kind that engages me far more than graphs and statistics.
It really got me thinking about my own history. My parents left southern Indiana when my father graduated college and had a good job opportunity in Detroit.
I was five at the time and I missed my grandparents terribly. They went from being a daily part of my life to sharing a few holidays each year.
I really doubt my parents would have achieved the same level of prosperity had they stayed in their small town. But at what cost? Our move to Detroit was the first of many. Each move was a do over to establish friends and a sense of community. But each move gave me a resilience that would have eluded me had I lived for years in a single zip code.
I do appreciate the benefits of my parents' decision - money to afford a higher education for me and my brother, an ever expanding circle of friends and experiences. But I also appreciate the sacrifices that were made with that decision.
11
@eheck, IMHO it is human nature to stay with what you have rather than take a chance. Many of us remain in jobs and relationships that we don't like but are afraid to seek what we really want in life. As you state, when someone in one of these towns tells someone they want to better themselves they are accused of "living above their station"! Often the parents don't want their kids to rise above their parents' accomplishments! As long as people belittle education, feel entitled, think their home town is the center of the universe, and seek the path of least resistance, life will not offer better outcomes.
3
It sounds callous to say, but not every small town can be saved. We need to work to build the industries and infrastructure of tomorrow, not cling tenaciously to a fading past and filthy, outdated, and environmentally damaging industries.
7
In the 19th century, and on into the 20th, when the gold and silver mines were exhausted of recoverable oar, that was it for the adjoining towns. Near me, in the southwestern corner of Idaho, are such "modern" ghost towns like Mountain City, Nevada, and Silver City of southwestern Idaho. The fate of these and many other once-thriving places is hardly unusual. When the mines play out, that's it.
4
I remember being on the outskirts of a conversation on my first full-time job in 1965 (International Nickel in Sudbury), and some were worried about an operation the company was bringing on in Indonesia, Malaysia or some such place ...
'Indonesia, Malaysia or some such place' many scoffed, 'why they don't have near the ability we do' (most of us chuckled but I was too new to do much but look around and maybe not embarrass myself too bad).
the thing of it is, maybe our own 'why, those fellows couldn't possibly be as good as us' isn't a premise which endears us to many foreign businesses (some of which are doing quite well today, thank you) ;
maybe it's time to head off into the woods and have a good long think about this less exalted position many would agree has been yours for a while now. long story short, it is a damned shame this lessening and lessening country and no one I know takes any pleasure in what is happening to you.
1
I grew up in a region just like this. The leftists, we high schoolers opposed to the Vietnam War, left, got educated, and have spent the remainder of our lives moving for work. The right wingers stayed, like these people, and rely on government benefits. I am considered un-American, but I am self sufficient. I live among illegal immigrants and American blacks. I lived through the street danger of crack. I question spending my tax dollars on people who insist on staying in an area abandoned by business. I question spending my tax dollars on people who lack a sense of citizenship and fail to question and contribute while receiving so many benefits.
If Central Americans can move, so can they. Maybe their history of labor activism can be put to use improving our living standards.
200
Economists and career developers identify “non routine” jobs as the higher paying. But, this requires an education beyond high school. With these higher paying jobs/careers, a more productive local economy could be built. But, it appears from your article that Grundy folks would prefer the routine life. On another note, it was the author of Hillbilly Elegy who thanked his grandmother for moving out of the hills to find work. He had to take a chance on the military and continue to adapt from there. I’ve got to thank my grandfather for moving to California in the ‘30’s so if he was going to starve to death, at least it would be warmer.
1
Grundy has lots of problems. The coal industry is continuing to decline, the income in the area have a low income, and the population of Buchanan County has been declining. On top of that, the area has suffered from an opioid crisis. Hopefully, Grundy will realize the opportunities they have to reinvent themselves, and that they can find whatever works best for them.
1
Back in the 19th century, the region in southernwestern Germany where I was born and still live in, was, like Grundy, quite poor and one of the least devoloped areas in the country. The soil here isn't very fruitful and the rough terrain makes agriculture inefficient, in addition, there are no natural resources to find here: no coal, no iron, no gold - nothing. So a lot of people fled poverty and emigrated to other areas of Germany, the United States or Eastern Europe. The people who stayed barely survived on their income.
Fast forward 100-150 years: Now the German southwest is one of the richest regions of Germany and Europe. There is (High-Tech-)Industry basically everywhere, generating wealth, high paying jobs and attracting people from all over the world.
How could this transformation from one of the poorest to one of the richest happen?
Well, without the ability to stick seed into the ground and watch it grow or to dig up some valuables hidden in the ground, the people here were left with only one thing: their skills. Once farmers here made Cuckoo clocks to get by during the winter, then, with the rise of technology and industry, they used their mechanical skills and started companies producing goods for those new industries, constantly changing their products to meet global demand.
Maybe the people of Grundy should do the same: focus on your skills. Leave coal in the past and turn to new technologies like regenerative energy, automation and computer science.
9
The only infrastructure improvment that could help residents of Buchanan County would be to improve roads so its remaining residents can leave faster.
4
No one has any idea what to do to help Grundy, or rather, every idea has been tried. None of them will ever pay average workers $30/hour. It's time to recognize the truth. Offer people help relocating elsewhere, and plant trees on the vacant lots.
6
Lots of problems. Most of them due to a lack of, or desire for, education. Moving is a rational decision. As for the pharmacy school and other investments, do not use "Appalachian" or derivatives of in the name. Like it or not, the word connotes misery, poverty, opiods, welfare, disability, etc.
4
It would be great to see Grundy and other Appalachian towns prosper again, but not from coal or gas. Fossil fuels are destroying our environment, and we will not survive if we don't stop the production of coal and gas. I hope that Grundy will continue to explore other opportunities in service, sustainable energy, tourism, etc., and find what works for them. But coal is killing us.
6
Sad.
This story has been repeating since, at least, the 1950s in the coal mining center of Northeastern Pennsylvania where I grew up, to southern Italy and just about everywhere around the world.
"Fanatic" is truly the person who having failed over and over, tries again.
4
Whoever the Democrats nominate needs to go to campaign in the RED states and ask a famous question:
"Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
Then that person needs to remind them that the guy who last asked that question was ... Ronald Reagan.
I wonder how Donald will deal with that (being skewered by the ghost of Ronald Reagan).
Today's Republicans ... er ... Cult of Trump would say that Reagan was a liberal. (I find that rather funny, in a sad sort of way.)
5
As Hoot Dellinger said, leaning over the edge of his booth, “This community will never prosper again.”
This statement is probably true for most small towns not anchored to a large urban area. The economy of America has changed significantly in the last 50 years, which is not unusual when you look at the radical changes that occurred over the previous 150 years. It is what it is.
There are just too many small towns with the same, intractable problems. Too many to afford to save. Look at how much the state of Virginia invested in the redevelopment of Grundy.
8
$170K per person would’ve been way better spent on relocation and education for new careers.
I wonder what taking a page from Berlin Germany’s growth from the early aughts would do for these towns: give away space to artists and/or free land to affluent city folk looking for vacation homes. A sort of second wave homesteading program. Rather than forcing a town to change, bring in the creative people and money that attract more people and money and the services they need.
8
Why doesn't Amazon move into one of these towns?
Instead of interjecting themselves into heavily populated cities, like Seattle and New York, where low Amazon wages, cannot pay for the already high cost of housing.
3
@Gus Since Amazon centers need transportation hubs seems this is part of the problem
2
@Gus Because the tech workforce they need does not exist there and current experienced tech workers are not interested in moving there.
5
Where are Amazon’s customers? They are not in southwestern Virginia, are they? They are in the big cities.
2
This isn't just a problem for the USA, but for a number of countries around the world. Here in the UK, I remember the devastating sight of smoke stack industries closing down when I was at university over forty years ago, and still those communities have not revived. And our own special case, Northern Ireland has "benefited" from perhaps as much as half a trillion dollars of "investment" over the past half century to no avail. It's still an economic basket case riven by sectarian division.
While Trump's aggressive and unplanned imposition of tariffs is clearly not the answer, we must acknowledge that unfettered free trade does not seem to be the answer either. Decades of developed countries keeping ourselves "open for business" has delivered shed-loads of cash to tiny group of privileged corporate magnates, but it has utterly, utterly failed communities like Grundy.
A genuine new approach is needed, and the need is getting more urgent as those people we have so let down are truly beginning to realise how little the prevailing establishment wisdom offers them.
6
When I left college in the late 1990s, I applied for several jobs in my field in my home state of Missouri. I got no replies. I applied for one job in Montana and was hired. So I left my home town, left my home state, for a state I'd never been to in my life. A state full of strangers. And it worked out terrifically. Years later, I moved to Washington state.
There's a whole lot of opportunity if you don't limit yourself.
16
@Chris
And that is the key - limiting yourself.
Change is inevitable, as much as we'd like it to all remain the same, the only ones not to feel that pain are those who have died too young to have it happen to them.
If we were more open to new ideas and technologies instead of wanting it all to be 1950 again, we'd be in front of China on clean power generation - which is the future - would free up monies thrown away on keeping an industry on life support for better health care services and a hundred other, better applications.
8
@peter Which is exactly why none of these people should vote again for Donald Trump. He is a backwards-looking failed businessman who thrives on his TV personality approach to governing. But it won't work. The dynamics of the economy today have very little to do with any of his policies and more to do with the business cycle. Just look at the charts since 2005 and it is obvious.
8
@Chris so true...yet leaving family especially parents who can help with their grandchildren and eventually need care themselves, cause many problems and heartache down the line
1
I grew up in Colorado and spent my summers fishing with my dad. When the fishing wasn't good, we'd drive up fire roads that would inevitably lead to a ghost town that we'd explore. This is what happens. Economies change, things evolve, towns die. All over the country there are the remnants of towns that no longer served a purpose and were essentially abandoned.
The real problem isn't that these towns are dying, the real problem is that the people can't accept it and are throwing good money after bad trying to keep a dead community on life support.
21
Towns do not reinvent themselves -- people do. When job opportunities in one place do not satisfy employment needs, people need to move to where the jobs are. That is how and why our ancestors happened to migrate to our home towns in the first place. They did not sprout up from the soil. For the most part they came on ships from Europe seeking better employment opportunity. I know that mine did. When that first town became a rust-belt city, we all moved on.
10
The amount of money per person spent on this town is astonishing. But apparently, it changed little.
Leaving to find something better is the traditional American solution. It is usually portrayed as a great American strength.
As someone who has relocated himself and his family twice to find places where there were better opportunities, I am not inclined to be sympathetic.
Still, if you want a lifestyle not based on subsistence farming, be prepared to move. (Those who fled New Orleans post Katrina and stayed away are now living significantly more prosperous lives than those who stayed or returned.)
Climate change will render increasing fractions of this country unliveable--far more if resources are wasted on dying towns rather than defending places were huge populations want to live and have a solid economic base. We need to spend our resources wisely.
12
WWII took a lot of men and women out of their hometowns. The GI bill have a lot of them an education they might not have had.
Does it take a world war for us as a society to make substantial changes?
We’ve spent trillions on Iraq and Afghanistan. Few protest.
If we tried to spend 10 billion on an Appalachian conservation core, lots of people would raise a fuss.
We have our priorities backwards.
9
@Larry Dickman they would raise a fuss because there is no money for corporations to make in Appalachia. It would be viewed as welfare despite all the good intentions. The soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are well trained on the latest technology have a mission. Those in Appalachia are waiting for change. It isn't an issue of priorities - our ancestors left to better themselves and they had much less than those in Appalachia. Apparently life still isn't hard enough for them to leave. Nobody is preventing them from leaving.
6
@Larry Dickman The Republicans created the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (its much easier to graft money from the government when their is a war going on --- remember Cheney's company Halliburton's billion dollar no-bid contracts ?) The Democratic party supports sinking billions into reinventing blighted parts of the US. Guess who the people in this town vote for.
Typical Trumpsters --- are they too low-information to properly evaluate which politician's policies will benefit them ? Or is it that they don't want any aid if it also helps "those other people" ?
Stories like this make me think about the history of New England. Time after time its industrial base was damaged/destroyed. In the 1800s, farms*, whaling, and ice cutting was lost. In the early 1900s, the textile industry moved to the American South, in the late 1900's, the manufacturing move South or overseas. These losses were follow by economic hardship. Yet, time and again, New England came back. Why the difference between the two parts of this country?
*They went west for better land. NE is full of the stone basement and fences of long lost farms and towns.
8
Two thoughts on this article from an Appalachian:
The Times assigned Eduardo Porter (an economics columnist living in NY) to write this article when there's an abundance of nuanced, quality journalism coming from Appalachians about the region these days. Times editors--check out the Knoxville-based Daily Yonder journalism collective if you're interested in having folks from the region cover issues that they know better than any New Yorker ever could.
Readers understandably balk at the high per capita government spending in Grundy but I'd guess 95% possess little to no historical understanding of the Appalachian coalfields that's important to contextualize modern investments in the region. In summary: 150 years of relentless extractive industry achieved through terraforming, Pinkerton thug union-busting, extra-judicial chicanery, outright theft of lands from mountaineers, regularly justified (to this day) by extreme negative stereotyping of Appalachians. Most responsibility for the ecological and economic travesty in the region largely lies with New England robber-barons and their modern corporate forms. The plunder was used to fuel economic expansion in the Northeast and Rust Belt for decades of the 20th century. What you see today in Appalachia is fallout from this economic rape.
So I venture to say that Appalachia has earned some of the investment it's receiving, however paltry the benefits appear to be.
7
@Lucas
I don't think anyone other than anti-government types like Grover Norquist and the Heritage Foundation have issues with government spending in places like Appalachia. What I find significant and troubling is how many of these people instinctively take the political side of the very forces that have been exploiting them for generations.
22
@Three Bars
The coal miners that didn't received their paychecks for months were completely abandoned by Trump, Mitch McConnell and the gang.
The high unemployment population of these areas relies on food stamps and Obamacare, which they are losing under Trump, yet they will vote for Trump again.
They support the forces that exploit and hurt them every time, which is why nothing changes in their world.
4
@Three Bars Any of these people who still support Trump are like the lemmings running over the cliff, rats following the Pied Piper. They are fodder for his egotistical lies, and unfortunately they will suffer for it.
3
I'm not in the Yang Gang or anything, but I do have to wonder how Yang's Freedom Dividend would impact a place like this, juicing their economy with some baseline capital.
3
@Mark I'm not in the Yang gang either, one way or another, but I can tell you the answer: the economy would continue to fall as the out-migration increases, fed by the extra cash that would pay part of the costs of leaving the sinking ship.
2
@Mark I have to wonder how it would impact the 22 trillion national debt.
2
Move where, exactly? All you urbanites have to admit you don't have affordable housing - there's an Op-Ed in this very paper every week about it. You have the jobs but you can't even house your own.
That's the whole rub - THERE IS NO PLAN. Democrats don't have one, the GOP doesn't have one. No one does.
Where to go ? What to do? Most can't afford to move to where there are jobs. Property has no value, so you can't sell and move. The most many of us can hope for is that outsiders like the area enough to purchase a second, vacation home and we can sell to them.
This is an interspersed nation wide problem. As you all contemptuously tell us to move, maybe just look back on the experiences of the Okies moving west or the Appalachians who re-located to Ohio and their experiences. Don't lie to yourselves. You don't want us. It's enough and I'm tired to death of hearing it. And y'all wonder about the alienation and anger.
17
@Lauren: Thank you so much for this post- you’ve summed a difficult situation perfectly. As one who has lived in both the most influential city in the nation, the modest area where I am currently, and points between the two, I get sick to death of the dismissive, “othering” attitudes and remarks from both sides, never offering a solution. Moving is not always an option, and even when I did hop about I was often looked at as an outlier, overhearing ugly remarks about my birth region, the Midwest.
5
@Danielle I don't know, moving is an option. My ancestors moved, they were always considered outliers and endured far more than ugly remarks. They were interned during WWII. Life is tough and it's unfair. No easy solutions but life goes on.
3
@Lauren There is plenty of affordable housing in Louisville, Indianapolis, St. Louis etc. It may not be your neighborhood of first choice, but it's not too far from city center and you don't spend too much time in traffic.
5
This is a similar article about the area, written in 2015 by the Atlantic Magazine, and it doesn't seem much has improved. Heartbreaking.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/01/life-in-the-sickest-town-in-america/384718/
1
Of course it can - just look abroad
Two Newspaper headlines
1. After following his father and grandfather into the pits of Germany’s Ruhr valley as a teenager, Andreas Schreiter’s family tradition will end when the country’s last hard-coal mine — the 150-year-old Prosper-Haniel site — shuts in December.
In its post-coal transition, Bottrop is offering subsidies aimed at attracting new companies and workers to a community increasingly populated by retired miners, according to the mayor.
Bloomberg News 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-30/germany-closes-last-coal-mine-despite-decades-of-supplies-needed
How is this working out ?
2, From the WAZ (Westphalia General Newspaper)
Unemployment in Bottrop reaches lowest value in last 20 years
(ARBEITSMARKT Arbeitslosigkeit in Bottrop auf tiefstem Wert seit 20 Jahren WAZ 30.10.2018)
https://www.waz.de/staedte/bottrop/arbeitslosigkeit-in-bottrop-auf-tiefstem-wert-seit-20-jahren-id215683991.html
German culture respects manual workers - American culture respects profits
6
Remember when Mitt Romney divided the world into the "Takers" and the "Makers", asserting that the Takers would never vote for Republicans?
You can add that to the list of what Mitt Romney got wrong.
9
Putting aside for a minute arguments about burning coal’s role in global warming, there is no anti coal conspiracy nor globalization. If the miners in Appalachian coal fields want someone to blame it’s Wyoming and Montana. What makes the production of Appalachian coal uneconomical is the Powder River Basin’s coal deposits and their inexpensive production.
3
I grew up in the Blue Ridge, though not in coal country, and I lived in Bristol VA for several years before moving to Florida. While efficient transport might be a challenge in other Appalachian states, Virginia has long seemed to do highways right in its mountain counties. And this county has become broadband-ready. It appears to be doing everything right to succeed in the new economy, so one has to ask: what if that isn't enough? What if towns that do all the right things are still left behind in the new economy?
As an aside: even though I grew up relatively near coal towns, I had no idea they were such pockets of prosperity. My image of miners was summed up in Loretta Lynn's "Coal Miner's Daughter." This article makes me rethink my opinion that coal is the only energy source that didn't bring prosperity to those who extract it.
2
“This corner of southwestern Virginia has long sought alternatives to coal as a source of sustenance.”
Not really, not now, even. Proof point: Trump vote numbers.
16
This country has not figured out how to deal with declining communities whose reasons for existence have long passed. This is true of both rural and urban communities. It's difficult for economic development to succeed in a place that grew out of it's proximity to steel mills that don't exist anymore. On the other hand, just letting these places die is not an option either. These places never really die completely. If they did we would have more ghost towns. Instead they just kind of linger, bumping along economically. This is the other income inequality that exists between communities themselves.
9
I used to scorn these people for voting against their family, their community, and their state's best interest. Job retraining for a Green New Deal Economy would revitalize their wallets. However, I've stopped doing that.
Almost none of the people featured here will read these article or the comments of people around the world urging them to open their eyes. Instead, FOX News and overly partisan GOP news sources may cherry pick the top-rated comment mocking these people, and say "Wanna irritate those smug coastal elites?! Trump 2020!"
15
So it seems most coal towns are just welfare queens waiting for the feds to bail them out, again and again. Copper used to be mined in the UP in Michigan. Did the government spend hundreds of millions trying to keep people from leaving? The miners left and all that Michiganders got was a polluted landscape. Extractors get rich, the taxpayers are left with a degraded environment. There has to be a better way to obtain the resources humans want for modern life. Letting a few get rich isn’t working and never will. Cry me a River Appalachia , just don’t come back to Detroit ever again. I knew and worked with y’all, your attitude helped destroy the auto industry, so move south.
6
Trump is the right wing trophy president, they know it won’t last they no its not the right thing but they fell for his charms and they are going to enjoy them while they can. It's a last hoorah, a last flash of bigotry, they will get dumped and replace him with the president who will look after them in there dotage but right now he looks good to them and who cares if he cant complete a sentence, they didn’t pick him for his brains. They just forgot that like a trophy wife he will empty their wallets before the divorce is final.
6
You can bet your last dollar that those sad people vote the republican ticket all the time. Guns and God are much n more than jobs and education. People who really want to make something of their live pick up and move to places that they can find work and opportunity. Coal is finished. The "good old days" are gone if they ever existed. I feel sorry for these people in Coal Country but it is their own fault.
10
I was born and raised in Grundy, Va. Lived there all my life. Coal was king and the business came and went with the times. Not everyone worked in the mines. My dad was an insurance salesman and make a good living at it. After high school, I did leave to work in Washington DC. but my roots called me back home,. I made my living back in Grundy by working in a bank. The people made the difference in Grundy. Everyone knew everyone and all their families. It is true that the mines are getting less and less, but the county officials have started working on new industries that will bring the county back up. That is one thing about our officials they are always looking for new ways to sustain the county.
6
The article mentions ATV trails. I think that is skin of the onion. The area is beautiful, notwithstanding those gloomy photos. However, trail expansions for ATVs/trail motorcycles, horses, mountain biking, hiking/backpacking and maybe cross country skiing needs a few things: (1) coordination with linked municipalities so a network of trails can be built (jobs) and maintained (jobs), (2) eminent domain to acquire contiguous strips of property to put the trails, (3) trail infrastructure such as access points, parking, restrooms, concessions (jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs). We all know about the Appalachian Trail and there are other trails. But, in this instance, follow the European hut-to-hut-to-village plan where the trails take users through the towns every 5-20 miles. Trail users spend money. Make the experience a plush experience. Just an idea, but it takes coordination, conciliation and a decent amount of start-up funding.
2
@XXX
Maybe in a progressive country, a trump is busy selling off our national parks so this concept would be DOA, even though it's been around for a while.
5
@XXX: You make a great point. Northern West Virginia, western Maryland (west of Cumberland) and southwestern Pennsylvania have successfully converted from coal economies to a bustling tourist economies. Ohiopyle PA has a booming rafting and cycling trade, and Thomas WV, an old coal town, is now filled with interesting stores and galleries. I always stop in for a cappuccino at TipTop, the best coffee for miles. These places are spectacularly beautiful and have so much to offer.
Now about those photos... Appalachia seems to invite these gloomy edits, perhaps to shock more urban and wealthier sensibilities. It's an old story. As a part-time photojournalist for AP, and as a frequent visitor to Appalachia, I can only say that these images lie: I'm quite sure this town does not look anything like the visual portrayals in this piece.
3
All one-trick towns, with industry based on extraction, will struggle with this problem. What happens once the coal/gold/silver/oil/timber is gone? Or if people no longer want your commodity?
Come to the west and see the ghost towns of former silver, gold mines. It sounds terrible, but all these efforts at revival are spitting in the wind. Maybe there is tourism potential. But WV has some awesome spots, not sure why anyone would want to go Gurdy.
If I were there, I’d tell my kids to move far away from home and far far away from coal.
14
Coal is a 19th century to mid 20th century technology. Other than metallurgical coal, its time has passed. Unless places like the ones described in this article recognize those realities, they are never going to reinvent themselves.
Unless the populace recognizes that "schooling" (OMG ... learning stuff) is the only way they will ever climb out of their economic hole, they are just going to stagnate. (That is why we need the equivalent of the GI Bill for every American.)
Neither of my grandfathers graduated from high school. My parents, and my wife's parents, were all college grads even though their parents questioned the need for a college degree. My wife and I, and every one of our three kids, have postgraduate degrees. And even that does not necessarily guarantee success. You have to manage your own career. (I recognize that my family has been very fortunate, and I am "paying it forward" for my grandkids now.)
However, for the vast majority of us, lack of education may guarantee failure.
That is the way of the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Wake up and smell the coffee.
19
Now, in an area where there is no work - Trump is going to stop Food Stamps to those without jobs. Yet they 'overwhelmingly' voted for him. At least the Trump bus still goes to their county - as the President tosses them under it.
22
@Paul
Paul, EXACTLY. Trump's food stamp cuts also affect free lunch programs.
5
Why doesnt anyone build good local public transport.? It creates,both temporary and permanent jobs, for severa education levels, eliminates the need for cars, good for tourism and can use alternative energy sources.
2
@Holly
"Why doesnt anyone build good local public transport.?"
Easy to do within an urban and/or suburban area. VERY, VERY hard to do in an area that literally is very geographically challenged as Buchanan County most definitely is.
Think of it this way - every area is in the middle of a triangle. ALL sides of that triangle are mountains with 2 lane roads that, in the wintertime, become almost virtually impassable for at least 24-48 hours.
1
I was born in Grundy in 1973 and, thanks to my mom's ambitions to "get out," my family moved away in 1978. My dad had a modest coal-dependent family business that he slowly diversified because he knew that coal was a dying industry. I feel incredibly grateful that my parents got me out of this very literally depressed area.
30
@Adam
foresight of any sort is for some reason rare and in your case close to lifesaving
there has been a decline in gumption since the 19th century, it seems, in this country
Well, if a “Subway and a Taco Bell” are in town, then all must be good. If Grundy still depends on coal jobs, why hasn’t Trump forced call centers to be repatriated from India? Though, these jobs pay minimum wage, it would be better than nothing. Call centers are a very easy sector to move. You don’t require to build infrastructure, it’s already there.
13
some of you'd like to imagine and he certainly does that DJT is all powerful and can order private industry to do anything. Surprise, its his rich constituency that has shipped all those call center jobs to India so they can pay 1$ an hour.
He never intended to save coal, who would? or spend money retraining miners. He's a conman
and fyi you need to be it literate to do those jobs.
3
@Holly How insulting for you to assume that people in these towns are not literate. Trump could force them through public opinion pressure as he as many other things.
1
I grew up in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. home to the original 1800s era textile factory cities of Lowell and Lawrence. Tens of thousands of textile workers were thrown out of work by mill closures in the 50s and 60s. Lowell has recovered, but it was a multi-generational effort. Lawrence has not. Both had the advantages of good transportation and proximity to the finance and high tech resources of Greater Boston. Why did one succeed stunningly and the other make only marginal progress? Lowell developed sustained top notch political and civic leadership while Lawrence failed on this front. Lesson: Good geography coupled with sustained local leadership is required to dig out of an economic hole. Just one is not enough. Based on the article I am not sure Buchanan County enough of either unfortunately.
19
in a former life, i worked as a city manager in a small southern town. historically, the town depended on textiles and tobacco - and we know the story of these industries - yet, many of the residents and community leaders still insisted that a rebirth of these industries was just around the corner. sure, there were a small handful of cut-and-stitch shops still operating, but they employed dozens, not hundreds as they had done previously. hardly a renaissance.
if you read case studies of the automobile plants that sprung up in tennessee or alabama in the 90s, one of the patterns that emerges is that the economic benefits of these employers are sometimes invisible at the local level.
while it seems counter-intuitive, consider A) that a worker might commute 50 miles and take their increased pay back to their own community, and B) supply and demand are still in effect, so the host community might see rising rents and prices, not to mention finally getting a big-box store may push out long time local sellers or otherwise change local consumer habits.
i wish i had a salvation story to tell, but i don't. my experience was back in 2010. our state leadership switched parties and cut the kinds of economic development grant programs that we depended on to extend sewer lines, or build a spec-building. we needed the state's help to compete and they took it away. that was a bitter pill to swallow.
ultimately, what any town needs to reinvent itself is luck.
10
What many of the locals, and most Republicans, don't seem to get is that it wasn't coal that made Grundy prosperous; it was the coal workers union (the UMW). Prior to unionization, coal mining was essentially slave labor where dirt-poor men and small boys would work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in dangerous conditions, and then be forced to give ALL of their money back to the coal company by being forced to live in company owned housing and buy food at the company owned store. Unionization changed all of this.
As long as we're discussing the history of the area, let's provide the relevant context Maybe the residents of the area should base their election day votes on which party supports labor and education, and which party wants to siphon all of their money to wealthy business owners. This is far more important than their current obsessions with gay marriage, gun fetish, and flag idolatry.
68
Were there any new manufacturing operation creating more than 100 jobs created in towns with 100k inhabitants in the last 10 years ?
Small operations with small capex investment could move in, but it is hard for me to imagine a 1000 employee operation taking a gamble on a city in decline. What happen when the hospital or school closes in lets say 15 years ?
Some of this is self fulfilling prophecies, but unfortunately investment decisions are often driven by perception of risk and rewards which are poorly quantifiable. Those small cities may be better off offering "free green energy" than building empty shells. Manufacturing operation location selection is about raw material access, energy cost, labor pool and then tax regimes.
6
@Joel - Another possibility is that “manufacturing” is NOT the wave of the future. In a global world, someone is always going to undercut these hypothetical small towns on cost of labor. In the near future, manufacturing (unless it’s for EXTREMELY complex products) is going to be performed by robots.
5
I grew up with the idea that my job as a young person was to explore the country and find my best place, which would not necessarily be the place where I started.
It seems that the low unemployment in many areas of the country should attract young workers from places like this. It's not clear to me why places that grew during the coal boom should not shrink during coal's twilight.
13
Rural areas can develop amenities for wealthier urbanites but tourism jobs are low quality. Use labor market policy (unions, universal health care, higher minimum wages) to improve all jobs. Subsidizing rural industries regrettably can strengthen reactionary political leadership without benefitting workers.
3
I believe that there is a high tech industry that is a perfect fit for coal country. I have sent this to Representatives in PA, a Senator in WV and a Senate candidate in Kentucky - all without response. A representative of the coal union expressed mild curiosity w/o follow up.
As is pointed out, mountain top mining has a shelf life. What to do afterwards is the question. Lots of money has been spent with little to show for it. What has been overlooked is that these sites are a tremendous opportunity for solar. They are large, bare and were built with ledges and roadways. The last two features would maximize the productive area available for development. Of course this plan would require a regional grid to make it competitive. The state or federal government would need to step in with the seed money to get it started. There would be obvious opposition from big coal and oil interests.
In every way this would be a win - win situation for an impoverished area. Good quality jobs would be generated in a way that positively addresses global warming. Job retraining through quality community colleges would be developed. Wind energy could also be built into the site design. With the amount of area that may be available to develop for solar, Appalachia might become, once again, a sustainable energy production center for the US.
Or you could just think - good, high paying jobs!
16
@Common cause
I’m not sure how this would help Grundy.
Solar farms do not require a large workforce to operate.
The solar panels would not be manufactured in Grundy.
The additional energy generated might lower nearby power bills, but that’s only if it’s construction is subsidized, as the initial investment is still too high to make solar panels competitive with natural gas (and yes, coal) over their expected life.
1
@Harry B If we don't advocate for our dreams, who will?
@Michael Brian Burchette Of course it all depends on a regional approach. That would ensure continuing demands for construction people to modify the sites, fabricators to build the solar arrays, distribution lines built for local and long distance delivery of the power generated, managers, educators to train all these different fields. Sure, the cost to start up is high. But then, free and clean energy that does not pollute the planet Earth. It is just the kind of large scale project that is needed. At the end of the day, you are not left with a park or building that lies unused but you have an ongoing profitable enterprise that benefits everyone.
These areas die economically because their “anchor” businesses are dead. Virginia’s life support efforts are impressive and laudable. A commonly sought solution is to upgrade the skills of population, since the low skill, manufacturing jobs are disappearing nationally.
Simultaneously, tens of thousands of illiterate, poorly educated immigrants are crossing our southern border, e.g Guatemala, Honduras. Like the citizens of these depressed areas, they are industrious and are willing to work when given a chance.
These immigrants are hobbled by their limited skills, illiteracy and lack of basic education. This traps them in the lowest tier of our economic ladder, well below poverty line. Like their domestic peers, their lives are being subsidized by a fraying social safety net that supplies a range of formal and informal support.
Further, most immigrants live in a “ghost” tax-free cash economy, that does not pay into the services they receive.
At some point the combined effect of these demands will trigger a collapse of the services, i..e not enough tax payers to sustain it. Implicitly, this will cause social unrest and a further expansion of poverty and attendant crime.
These considerations argue for an immigration policy that considers the ability of the applicant to be self supporting. Trump is a loathsome bigot, but on this aspect of policy he is correct.
However, their skillsets are so limitd
2
@Bongo ,
So there is no confusion...many, many, many undocumented immigrants pay all their taxes. They do this any time they use falsified documents to get the job (i.e. SSN). All the taxes are withheld - but, they never get a tax refund; they never get a SSA retirement; they never get Workman's Compensation.
3
I like the giant open pit mine you dug between what this article documents and any linkage at all to any immigration at all, be it legal, illegal, or completely fantasized.
1
@Bongo Appalachia is 95% native-born white folks. No one of any color is immigrating there.
Funny how these so-called "pull yourself up by bootstraps, rugged individualist, no big government and lower taxes" folks are being bailed out time and again by state and federal (blue state) dollars and still vote against their best interests by supporting the con artists called the Republican Party. Then rail against us "libruls" "socialists" "godless" Democrats for "causing" their problems while refusing to recognize that the corporatists - coal companies in this instance - get a pass for raping the local land, the local economy, and ultimately their worker's health - and either bail while they still have money or declare bankruptcy and bail.
How many ghost towns are there out West and the Southwestern states? None of them were bailed out by governments, they died the natural death they needed to once their one-note industries were tapped out - gold mines, silver mines, etc. It's time know when to fold 'em. And stop blaming the government they vote for.
36
This is the 21st century. Grundy's Economic Advisory board should have had the foresight (20 years ago) to know reliance on coal as their mainstay would lead to the decline of their economy. They were not interested in attracting new industry and development. They were happy with the status quo as long as it involved coal. They wanted to retain their small town 'community.' And for the few 'coal' families that prospered and now 'reinvest' in their community, its too little too late. Those few prominent familes probably sit on the Board too. This defines small town dynamics, politics, and mindset. Life is comfortable until it isn't.
14
But Trump promised to bring all the jobs back for the coal workers. Instead of supporting clean renewable energy, Trump got thousands of votes from these folks based on lies. There is no money in the federal budget for infrastructure, Trump made sure of that when he gave big wealthy corporations and the wealthiest Americans a big tax break. Will these people ever admit they have been had by a grifter? These are the folks that supported Trump, and have seen no help from him. Yet they still think he is the answer to all their problems.
13
@Lyndsey
Obviously those jobs aren’t coming back.
Trump followed a time-tested formula for success in electoral politics: tell the people what they want to hear, and make them unrealistic pie-in-the sky promises.
It was a hollow promise that ranks right up there with promising voters free college tuition, free medical care, and a reliable/affordable energy grid powered without fossil fuels or nuclear fission plants.
1
@Michael Brian Burchette - Taxes are supposed to pay for the things all of us use and need, such as education and medical care. It's not free, we all pay for it and we all benefit from it. Every other industrialized nation in the world manages to educate their citizens and keep them healthy. Why is it supposedly impossible to do here in the U.S.?
@Michael Brian Burchette
I totally agree with you. None of that will get my vote.
Welfare for “ those “ people. Meaning white republicans.
Seriously.
14
China is converting coal plants to nuclear plants, using safe HTR-PM technology. Most promising is the facility with which the HTR reactor can manufacture "green" hydrogen from water, introducing the possibility of synthesizing carbon-neutral liquid fuels - even gasoline.
Such a technology could be transformative, for both the environment and the economy in the southeastern U.S.
9
@BobMeinetz
Yes! But people still think about nuclear in terms of Harrisburg and Chernobyl. Nuclear is the only solution with the scale to deal with a 10 billion human population. This new technology is a whole new ball game. Your last sentence says it all.
4
I live in a small town in southwestern Virginia about 50 miles from Grundy. My father and late husband both worked for Clinchfield Railroad which is now CSX. My son presently works for CSX and wonders if at age 49 he will be able to retire from the railroad. I had uncles and cousins who worked in the mines until they retired. The article is so accurate. My daughter left the area following college and now lives and works in Florida. My nephew is located in Charlotte, NC. Throwing money at the issues has yet to solve any of them but it keeps happening on a regular basis. The small town of St. Paul is trying to reinvent itself as the destination for outside activities such as trail bike riding, floating on the Clinch River, etc. Yet none of these will provide the jobs lost by mining. There are no easy answers but many issues remain.
17
So let's tackle this gnawing narrowly-scoped economic problem Let's help southwestern Virginia get back on its feet and perhaps even lead America's comeback. Let's begin with all those flat-topped mountains the coal industry walked away from (same thing happened in Southern Illinois and West Virginia) when the coal petered out.
Those denuded mountains look horrible now, but they'll look beautiful with hundreds of wind mills parked on them generating megawatts of cheap electricity for southwestern Virginians. Coal miners, retrained as tower installers, will be needed to erect the mills. Hundreds of retrained coal miners will be needed as permanent mechanics to keep them running. Local economies and school district budgets will be lifted. And the coal tailings, and their associated pollutants, will stop growing and ruining the health and lives of local communities. If we wanted to give deserving, hardworking people an actual Christmas present, we would begin this project now with help from federal development dollars.
7
@Richard No, this area can't be rebuilt economically. It only prospered because of resource extraction. It's people added little value to what they took out of the ground. It lacks talent and skills and has no competitive advantages other than the extraction of metallurgical coal. Installing wind turbines would be a one-time event with no lingering need for local people. Software and other high tech jobs are already going offshore to places like Singapore, where the workers are much better educated. The best thing we could do is to provide transition benefits for those who are stuck there, educate their children so that they can get decent training, and foster job creation in other places so those children have someplace to move to. Whether the place is the coal fields of the South or the cutover forests of the Pacific Northwest, the story is the same: it is time to move on.
8
@Rod Stevens I lived in the Seattle area for 31 years, married to a forester for 14 years. Those forests are well-managed and not cutover. And because this is true, they will sustain are requirements indefinitely.
I also lived in Alaska after the gold rush, but before the oil rush. People living there led robust hopeful lives, with good schools, jobs, and their health. I never heard people complaining about their ill fate. Let's also remember that the Innuit lived on the land we call Alaska for 26,000 years. They made a fairly good go of it as well.
3
If the major industry is taking care of older people, then build some senior apartments and nursing homes and invite the world to enjoy low-cost retirement living.
4
There was an article in the NYT just recently about the increase in manufacturing jobs in New York City, I think it was about manufacturing underwater drones, and several other companies making other products. These companies needed employees with advanced manufacturing skills and they were training some which took about a year. In fact the employers helped start an initiative called 'Fundamentals of Fabrication' to help increase training for prospective employees interested in advanced manufacturing. Could similar industries and initiatives bring similar jobs to this area?
3
Finally, an article about the plight of the forgotten coal miners of Appalachia.
17
@Data from Star Trek - “Forgotten”??? Hardly!! I seem to remember that one of the pillars of Trump’s campaign was bringing back coal!! Just wait, as soon as he finishes winning those trade wars that are so “easy to win”, he’ll bring back coal. That’s why all those West Virginians voted for him.
4
coal is a thing of the past, horrible for the environment and for human health, maybe we could train people to work with green technologies..Trump just used coal as a symbol of working class people, without caring about the negative impact he or the coal industry have on the planet..
19
The rural/urban split is always crucial. WW II brought the destruction of urban environments in Europe and a long dependence on rural, agricultural parts of Europe. Some would say that rural Europe exploited urban environments and institutions at the time.
The growth of American urban environments has meant a massive decline of rural environments, as mechanization and industrialization of agricultural production and the growth of urban industry (as well as the excitement of city living) have led to an exploitation of rural areas by urban institutions.
First we have to at least begin to understand the problem.
2
Here we have a town of brilliant people who don't seem to connect any amount of dots presented to then about what is going on in the world. They rely on government gifts from others and believe in trump lies about the prosperity which won't ever come their way. At some point you have to get out of your dream world and face the facts no matter how unpleasant. Facts are crucial, opinions don't matter. Coal is not your savior anymore and neither is trumpie.
30
With the honest assistance of the president and the Congress, yes, this town can reinvent itself. A LIAR president cannot help them, and won't help them. They should vote for the candidate who will help them! The one who will represent their interests. The one who has walked the walk for 40 years, without fail. There's only one--Bernie Sanders.
7
@ChesBay yes I would buy a dozen bananas from Bernie in the village square, but he is NOT Presidential material..a good, well meaning man however..
8
@james jones --My guess is that you think Mayor Pete is "presidential material." Good for you. Excellent critical thinking.
This certainly show that even when you do all the things you can for these types of communities (spending huge amounts of money), all you do is to prolong the pain. Maybe we have to find a way to design "palliative care" for communities that go from the boom to the bust phase. However, we need to stop wasting huge sums on all these false hope projects. I don't think that the jobs of the future will be placed into thousands of little enclaves in faraway places. Most young people trained for these jobs want to live in big communities with lots of options, opportunities and entertainment for their careers and families.
15
@Ivan
I don't know, a large number of my friends in their 30's now work remotely for tech and consulting companies. They moved to rural areas in order to be with partners who got jobs there, because they have a lot of outdoor hobbies, or because they want to be able to purchase a home in their lifetimes. High speed internet connection in every small town would to a lot to put good jobs everywhere. The bigger problem is what to do with the average person who doesn't have a masters in computer science.
There used to be a lot of middle skill union jobs doing physical labor in this country. Now that most of those are automated or outsourced most jobs are at one extreme or the other: menial minimum wage service sector jobs with no dignity or possibility to advance, or highly skilled white collar jobs. One option is for government to massively tax wealthy individuals and companies and create jobs like infrastructure repair, green energy, and high quality childcare that the free market has failed to generate.
7
@E B
Point is that this community has the outdoors recreation, inexpensive housing and high speed internet. Yet that simply isn't enough to turn them around. There isn't enough outdoorsy techies ready to make such a move - to save the thousands of small communities on life support. A few dozen techies in a community is not enough to save it.
$170k to each town resident, overseen by a trustee for distribution, earmarked for specifics like housing, moving costs, training in the trades, education etc. would have gone a lot further to help relocate these folks.
26
Buchanan County passed a "Second Amendment Sanctuary County" resolution on Dec. 2. Accordingly, they get so sympathy and no pass-through spending from me. Most other counties in red VA have passed similar resolutions that are promoted by the right-wing, single issue Virginia Citizens Defense League. My own BoS will soon decide whether to go along with this lawless nonsense or not, and I may be faced with spending my money elsewhere to whatever degree possible.
These resolutions declare that local law enforcement can determine the constitutionality of any gun safety laws (that don't yet exist).
Who would bring business to such places?
49
Having called on the mines in the Appalachian Coal region for over thirty years, then retiring here, my wife and I frequently take day trips throughout the region and try to keep up on what's happening. The transition away from any extractive industry can be difficult. The one common thread you see here an elsewhere, is all these communities building "Industrial Parks". Then more grants follow for "Spec" building, with the hope that some industry will come and occupy them. I still see far too many of them sitting vacant. When new industry does appear, they tend to build facilities that meet their needs. Federal and state governments do have a responsibility to help these struggling communities, but the resources to do so our limited, Concentrate on the development of human skills and infrastructure. As indicated in the article, Grundy is isolated from a transportation standpoint. Yet, there is a new four lane partially completed going from Route 23 South of Pikeville through Elkhorn City into Virginia past the Breaks State Park and further East south of Grundy. Completion of that road seems years away. Completion of it needs to be accelerated which will require multi-state effort. Not only will it open up opportunities but tourism. It is a beautiful area from a tourism standpoint. Broadband would help get young businesses growing as well. This is a nice place to live and can be made better.
14
@John Warnock Sorry bud, ain’t moving to or visiting Trump country. Y’all scare me.
3
@Harry B Actually I am not a Trump supporter and the vast majority of people in the region are nice folks.
3
The charts tell an interesting tale. Coal employment dropped dramatically well before Obama and Hillary came along; look at how many rely on federal transfers for income/support. Even when coal was booming in the 70's the disposable income compared to US average was very low; now it is about the same. But guess what. About 80 percent of the voters voted for Trump. When are the Democrats ask voters one simple question. What have the Republicans ever done anything for you ?
30
they haven't given them anything but false hope, that, like the opioids they cling to, seems to be what they will settle for.
6
Without a product that someone wants to buy, no community will thrive. Government make works support the bureaucracy administrating them and that's usually the end of the story.
9
There isn't any town or city that relies on a single industry that can continue to thrive when that industry is gone.
The only reason there was ever a city there is coal.
Move to where you can live and thrive. Wal-mart is not going to last either. In fact, in life, nothing lasts "forever".
26
Agreed. The West is littered with ghost towns that withered and died because the economy left and people followed. Admittedly, just telling people to move is easier said than done, because it sounds as though a sizable swath of the population can’t afford to support themselves, let alone the expense of a move.
It is an ironic shame so many US companies outsourced their call centers to overseas companies. Odd that the most lethal killer of Main Street business —Walmart— is now all they have left and they mourn what Walmart killed.
By the way, they’ll figure out at some point that Trump cares nothing for them.
16
The fracking revolution is driving coal (though not metallurgical coal) into obsolescence. Sometimes a town or region loses its economic reason for existence. This has happened many times in many places. People gradually move away. It's not a tragedy.
7
There's another solution but many of the townspeople won't like it: contingent immigration. You can come to the U.S., but only if you live in towns like Grundy. It will require federal assistance to get these folks set up on the front end, especially the schools, but over time immigrants tend to be net givers rather than net takers in their communities.
16
@Larry
With no work, how do these new immigrants support themselves? The people are leaving because there are limited opportunities to work.
9
@Larry
But if there are no jobs?
2
@ExPatMX - I live near an immigration center. Many of the immigrants start their own businesses and create jobs.
Coal is not going to come back! It is the worst of the fossil fuels because not only does it release carbon dioxide but also leaves a lot of toxic ash behind. Electric utilities are finding it cheaper to convert to natural gas which has become more plentiful – far from a perfect change but better than before. Out in Iowa along the Union Pacific or BNSF railroads you can see multiple daily 100 car + freight trains loaded only with coal headed east to the power plants. To see the future for clean energy, then drive along I-80 near Grinnell, IA and you will see a huge wind farm (100+ turbines and still growing) that MidAmerican Energy is building. There are also many other wind projects in that state – some very large and other smaller ones put up by local communities to supplement power at a lower cost to their residents. This is only one example of the shift to cleaner energy, but it will ultimately reduce employment in the mining and transportation industries. It is time to start thinking about alternative career paths for those people who will be affected.
19
Welcome to the wonderful world of Economic Trumpism. Trump and the 1 percent take the money out of these hollows in the mountains and when the coal is gone, what do the people expect?
Maybe they can go to China or Poland or Germany where there are vast underground soft coal plants.
This is pure capitalism.
So now those who remain want high paying minimum education jobs with benefits and the ability to retire with a broken body at age 65,
The major employers that remain get their money from taxes. Who pays for the hospitals, education institutions, prisons, military and so forth?
How long do you think the trump children would last in a coal mine? About 15 minutes.
Vietnam
13
Trump promised these people they would return to the mines and their children and grandchildren would be in the mines. This is why they voted for him.
4
@Philip W
The question is, will they vote for him again even though he didn't produce or will they recognize what he actually is and try another candidate?
7
@ExPatMX
I think they'll stick with him even if they recognize what he actually is. They won't turn away from him.
6
@Philip W anyone who has worked a job like coal mining and wants their kids and grandkids to do the same is a sadist, fool, or insane.
My parents worked physically damaging jobs from childhood. They made sure that I and my siblings got the education that we needed so that we would never have to do those things unless something went badly wrong with the world.
13
"This corner of southwestern Virginia has long sought alternatives to coal as a source of sustenance."
Their favorite "alternative" is your tax dollars.
68
I am a child of the Blue Ridge and dearly miss the mountains of North Carolina, but I had to move on. My hometown lost its textile mills and furniture plants and has been slowly dying on the vine since the 1980s. Today the hospital and nursing homes are the major employers — this story is correct in 90 percent of girls becoming nurses and many of the boys too. Instead of trying to hang on to the past, we need to focus on giving our children the tools they need to deal with the future and that starts with investing in education. Like so many other commentators, I wish the $170,000 per person spent to save the downtown had been used instead to save the children of Grundy.
52
Some of the ideas considered by those trying to revitalize the economy of Grundy make sense, but they have been implemented wrongly.
Take for example, the Appalachian School of Law and the Appalachian College of Pharmacy. Both of these institutions can serve the region, but there is one glaring deficiency: neither is associated with a major research university.
Are you listening, Tim Sands, Ph.D., in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Just wondering.
7
I grew up in Detroit when the domestic car industry was booming; you could walk in an auto plant and quickly get hired in good paying, union jobs. But I knew it wasn't what I wanted. I went to work in the clerical field; GM offered me a job in the office. I declined. Instead, I went to work for other companies, continuing to gain skills and landed a job at a company offering 100% tuition reimbursement. I earned a degree while working and continued to advance. But I continued to live in Detroit because I wouldn't abandon my Mom. I stayed there, caring for her until she passed at 91.
A week after I returned to work from bereavement, a promotional opportunity came up. I applied for it, got the promotion and they relocated me. I left Detroit and never looked back.
I recently traveled back to Detroit for old times sake. I drove around just to look at all the places I used to work and live. Blight and abandoned buildings. There are still jobs available, but the mfg. jobs are no longer the guarantee they used to be. Education, and if necessary, relocation are the key.
I'm comfortably retired now. But no way would I have the retirement I have if I'd stayed in Detroit. You can stay where you are, perhaps family responsibilities mandate it. But you also have to accept that life may decline or change if you're unable or unwilling to make some sacrifices
49
I struggle with empathy and compassion for people in towns like this because it is so apparent that they lack empathy and compassion for people like me (urban, POC, immigrant). Their insistence that they are the "real Americans" and deserving of bottomless government assistance while others are freeloader when they get any assistance is nauseating as is their continued support of the GOP.
If this were a town of poor black people, would they have gotten as much assistance? Would the comments asking for compassion and empathy still be forthcoming? I think not.
Where was the empathy and compassions for black urban dwellers living with the effects of redlining, lead poisoning, poor schools, little prospects, and a raging drug crisis?
145
@AKJ -- That's a completely fair point. I think, though, that there is still room for empathy about the negative effects of globalization and neoliberalism. There is a long history in Appalachia (and elsewhere) of corporations and political elites using racial tensions to turn attention away from important economic issues. To give one example: during the coal strikes of the early 20th century, companies deliberately sought out black strikebreakers to undermine the resistance of strikers, who were often poor whites. Of course, this strategy only worked because it exploited systemic racism that already existed, but my point is this: racism so often serves the interests of cultural elites to the detriment of everyone else. To be clear, I am not saying that everyone is hurt equally by racism. POC bear the brunt, of course, and deserve redress for all the injustices you've mentioned. Yet I still think (hope!) there can be empathy.
12
This is an insightful article. It exposes the lives of our fellow citizens feeling lost and left behind. Great reporting.
5
@Andy
I'm originally from a town like this in West Virginia. My family moved after my dad lost his blue collar job, having to sell our small home at a loss. He went to college, graduated with an engineering degree and found a job he loved.
My advice - anyone who can should leave these places, where the economic reason for the town is gone.
8
@Andy
These people feel lost and left behind because the vast majority flat out refuse to acknowledge that this is the 21st Century and time doesn't go backwards - for ANYONE at anytime anywhere anyhow.
Any of the young people who graduate and do manage to go to college, leave and do not come back. What's left there are older people with little to no education and a refusal to adapt to a changing world.
1
Sound familiar? Everything they have tried is straight out of the standard economic development playbook. That game can’t be won. If rural places want a different future, we have to change the game. That’s what we’re about at the ARCH Community Health Coalition. We’re working to change the game for Hopkins County (in the heart of the western Kentucky coalfield) and other rural places like Grundy, all across the nation. We are trying to do that in two ways. One, we’re building a coalition of community organizations to work collaboratively to try to leverage better community health to produce a larger, more productive workforce. We’re also working to bring all the community power centers (government, education, economic development, healthcare, civic groups) together to form a unified vision for our future and to develop a single, long-term strategic plan to get us there. Like Grundy, we have to overcome the common rural mindset of “we can’t do that here”, but we have to do it. If we don’t, we just continue the long, slow slide to irrelevance and decay. Rural America is important to the fabric of the nation. It is in crisis. It is worth saving. It will be people, working together on a common vision to build a better future, that saves it, not new shopping centers.
10
If I may be so bold, two ideas come to mind when reading about Grundy. First: A bicycling trail, paved or not, that is at least 50 miles in unbroken length. Businesses may grow alongside such a trail, such as breweries or bike repair and sales shops. Second: Dark sky areas for those who wish to see the night sky free of light pollution. A boon, maybe, for area hotels. What do people who live in Grundy think of these ideas? What are some other ways to bring people into this area?
6
"The big call center on Southern Gap(the development project that is supposed to be the "salvation" of Buchanan County) closed in September, cutting nearly 200 jobs".
Call center jobs that most likely went to locations abroad, like the Philippines, where people labor in semi-slave like conditions.
Why pay American citizens minimum wages and health benefits with enforced health and safety and environmental restrictions when you can employ slaves abroad for a fraction of the cost ?
15
I would invite Mr. Rife to imagine a different type of energy extraction available to Grundy..(and for towns and cities all up and down Appalachia)
Instead of taking energy from under the ground..they should be investing in renewable energy on top of those beautiful hills and mountains..with thousands of solar collector plates and majestic wind turbines lining those blustery and wind swept ridges..creating energy AND, more importantly, jobs.
(btw..I grew up i sw va..went to Va Tech..dated a girl from Tazewell near WV)..so my heart belongs to Va..and I want to see it succeed.
The reality is that w/out jobs...places stagnate..and there isn't any reason (well..one...called coal) these areas cannot invest in new energy..as a source of energy for the east coast (just like the TVA brought prosperity back in the 30's and 40's) and a source of jobs..ot maintain the windmills and solar panels..
So..the vision has to change..its energy which is important...and does it matter where it comes from?? I would argue it does not!! And..we have to break the interest of coal..
Grundy should be investing in the company building Norweigan company building the windfarm in the atlantic for NYC.. that will power half a million homes.
that is the type of economic activitiy which builds prosperity..not investing in a walmart..and taco bell
These people are good, hard working, intelligent men and women..and they just need the opportunity to work.
6
@wfkinnc
Wind and solar farms have industrialized and destroyed vast areas of the Southern California desert.
They are not ‘green’ and will have to be dismantled and the sites cleaned up at some point.
8
Nope. They can move to a city like the rest of us or they can stay there and be poor.
14
Oddly enough these towns folk support Trump and his lies and fear anything the GOP call "socialist" but are pretty quick to take federal and state handouts as these are "capitalist" hope.
38
My patience with these regions is wearing thin, honestly. Just about every industry has been upended, but not every industry held their breath like petulant children and believed the most obvious of hucksters into thinking that he'd somehow revive a dead industry. Personally, I pivoted to graphic design after working in the struggling print industry for many years and now enjoy an even better lifestyle than before.
I'm not a huge fan of Hillary, but I do recall that she had a plan to invest in these regions with new training and tech. These voters overwhelmingly rejected that in favor of a showman who would "stick it to the libs."
Who knows, maybe the tech and tourism sectors will be impressed by the Taco Bell, Walmart and Subway, their cannabis prohibition and white supremacy rallies that Virginia is now known for.
70
Many industries and careers have been decimated and gone away. It has happened in this century, and it has happened in every century or decade that has come before. I was a journalist for 20 years, but in 2008, the writing was clearly on the wall. My husband and I, who were both in the newspaper industry at the time, sat in the van during our son’s soccer practice and basically played rock paper scissors for which of us would go back to school and reinvent ourselves. I became a nurse practitioner. He is still in newspapers, but we no longer depend on a dying industry.
I don’t know why the coal industry, as you said, petulantly held its breath and insisted the rest of the country bail it out. I have yet to understand how an industry that employs fewer people than Burger King wields so much clout. I guess it is the visual of the hardhats and coal-stained jumpsuits at Trump rallies. I have also never understood how any parent can hope that their child would perpetuate a way of life that destroys the environment and helps their children to buy a case of black lung. These are the people who decry anyone on public assistance, not understanding that they are on the government teat more than anyone. It’s almost like farmers (I grew up on a dairy farm) making the same claims, not understanding that their subsidies absolutely are government welfare, whether they want to admit it or not.
Trump would tell them to find a bootstrap and pull.
15
@Laura
One of my professors comes from a coal mining family. One day, in answer to a student who was ranting on about 'clean' coal, he started naming all of his relatives who died from black lung or a mining accident. It was a very quiet classroom when he finished.
8
When trying to get the essence of a community, I look at two things: the property tax payments and the high school profile.
There are 22 properties for sale in Grundy. The two most expensive ($175K and $225K , lots of acreage) pay $341 and $47 in property tax. Why? Who is supporting town services?
The Grundy High School website is heavy on sports, and listed a "techer training" in the calendar. The curriculum is paltry - Spanish III is the most advanced "foreign" language (most schools use the term "world language").
I don't see the ingredients for positive change here. They don't seem to be even trying. Imagine what $170K per person would have meant to creating a decent school or paying for town services.
36
As a other commenters have pointed out, this is really sad. And, as other commenters have pointed out, it’s an ANCIENT story. Economic change has forced despair and eventual migration for thousands and thousands of years, and will continue to do so in the future. Hunter gatherers were forced out of their lands by the first farming communities. Migrating herdspeople were pushed out by settled communities. Blacksmiths were displaced by large metal mills. Coach makers disappeared when auto makers took over. Despite today’s political frenzy, every person in the Western Hemishpere (even “indigenous” populations) can trace their ancestry to people who migrated when things got bad “back home”. One lesson might be: when the local powerhouse economic engine begins to sputter, DON’T WAIT, get ahead of the curve!
37
@stevevelo My great uncle made buggy whips
Both Trump and Hillary were selling fantasies about revitalizing these areas. The Trump fantasy was basically “I’m bringing back coal/manufacturing and things will be like the good old days”. The Hillary fantasy was the old technocrat job retraining that politicians love to trot out - all you 50 some year old ex-miners/factory workers can retrain for six months and become coders or HVAC contractors. If you’re going to do fantasy, people prefer ones that make them feel good.
As for the Toyota plant, what they don’t mention is that new hires are temporary employees and it takes years to get on as an actual Toyota employee.
19
@FW Either way, Hillary didn’t pay enough attention to all these people - was condescending - and the media didn’t cover them enough either. I’m glad to see this article.
4
@FW ---Trump told the folks around Lordstown Ohio to hold on to their houses......GM closed the plant anyway when sales couldn't support even one production shift.
4
The media didn’t cover them enough! Are you kidding me?! There was not a diner in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, or Pennsylvania in their coal regions that did not have reporters and TV crews camped out in 2016 covering the plight of the forgotten coal miner. No industry on the continental United States got more playtime than coal miners, who make up a very small part of the American industrial profile. There were minimal stories about political interests and views of nurses, teachers, engineers, pharmacists .... all who make up a bIgger chunk of production individual segments of the economy the coal miners. Based on news coverage. you would think every third worker in this country digs black rock out of a hill.
9
Living in SW Indiana, also coal country, and being involved in fighting the ravages of coal mining and burning for four decades, now, I can attest that there are NO PROSPEROUS COAL COMMUNITIES. In fact, when coal comes to town community pride slips away and the only signs of positive economy are the number of dirty new pick up trucks driven by those lucky enough to work in one of the boom and bust jobs coal has given them.
Gundy is no different that any other town that has given its future dreams over to filthy, extractive industry. This scene is played out everywhere unfortunate enough to have carbon deposits underfoot.
39
@Brian what’s cruel is pumping money into a false dream and giving false hope. I have empathy but my 45 year old grandfather picked up from rural Ireland with $50 in his pocket for America. Not everyone is equipped to do that physically or emotionally but if he was sold a false dream back home, the trajectory of my family would have been quite different and quite possibly stagnant.
Time to invest money in skill-training and relocation, not in Walmarts where they can buy goods from countries that have displaced them.
31
Mining and logging companies raped and poisoned the land, exploited the people who lived on it, reaped enormous profits, and left the rest of us to cope with what’s left behind.
And a bloated buffoon from New York who never worked a day in his life, never got his hands dirty, and could care less about the misery that was coal mining in its heyday and the aftermath of coal mining bellows ‘I’m bringing back beautiful clean coal!” and “I’m putting coal miners back to work!”
He isn’t. It’s a cruel, shameful, shameless lie. In 1925, there were 850,000 coal miners in the United States. Their numbers have declined steadily since, and have been around 50,000 for quite a few years now. As coal mining employment tanked, coal production rose dramatically and peaked in 2009. Mining companies eliminated those jobs and mechanized - making it easier, faster and even more profitable to scrape coal out of the Earth and leave the devastation and toxins behind for others to deal with.
Coal is ove, but the human, environmental and cultural devastation remains. And the ‘philanthropy’ of coal mining magnates is as hollow as the philanthropy of the Sackler family. These people grew rich through greed and brutality and created this mess. Throwing nickels and dimes at the results won’t buy them a place in heaven.
108
@chambolle
Great comment - I'd like to nominate you for president!
8
So noted that the coal jobs were crashing in 2000 and no, Trump is not going to bring them back. At least they have metallurgical coal but those jobs are being automated as well.
11
Here is the bottom line imo, that history has taught us about this issue from day one.
Towns come and go whether through economics or disasters. Our history is replete with examples from western ghost towns after the minerals dried up to the Okla. farmers who left after the dust storms.
Bottom line do your best to solve the problem, improve education, some gov't help, tariffs on the biggest slave labor countries taking the jobs, new industries etc.
If all else fails, what many people do, move to a more economically prosperous area.
23
tech companies could offshore work to appalachia but appalachia would need to have the work ethic of the countries where tech work is offshored to now, and the education
12
@E Campbell you are so true, peoples in America have become I'm good and I don't want to leave the place where I'm feel comfortable and love this place even though the future seems bleak. American need to understand that economic changes with every generation when new technologies are invented. Peoples need to be rethink that they have to move to survive. This is the reason poor peoples from third world countries risk their lives to move to the western countries. Small town like these need to cater to retiring adults from high tax cities/states by building retirement homes and communities with activities for older populations and this will create new jobs and services like healthcare and etc.
6
@ECampbell: whether they have learned yet remains to be seen. I grew up in Southwest Virginia but moved away 30 years ago. Hearing from those still living there, the Trump worship apparently continues. I’m sad to hear it, but not surprised - giving up coal’s glory days is proving to be very difficult.
11
It's sad that these little towns are dying, but this has been happening to human communities since the beginning. Most of us are descended from people who decided to cut their losses and look for a better life elsewhere. Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up a region with no future, why not put the money towards helping people in other areas?
26
@Liz And these people would never allow the migration of immigrants that would re-build their community as is happening in Utah and other places.
13
@E Campbell
Without jobs available, there is no way immigrants can rebuild the community.
3
@Liz I recently traveled to the region in Europe where my ancestors immigrated from in the 19th century. Guess they thought coming here to work in factories was better than plying their skills back in their villages in the old country. That region in Europe today is beautiful, prosperous and thriving. But then European countries don't have the throw-away attitude reflective of the the US's social darwinist policies that creates and encourages the decline of areas like Appalachia.
1
I've been down there a couple times and it is soul crushing in its desperation. Rampant drugs, the jobs available are low paying and few and far between, high levels of uneducated people unavailable health care options etc. Proud people with less and less to be proud of with every passing decade. If anything there should be a program to help people, especially the young, to get out of there so they at least have a fighting chance. Give everyone that wants it a one way bus ticket out to wherever they want to go, an apartment paid for for a year and as much money as it takes to get them on their feet and in a job. That would be so much cheaper than paying for food stamps and welfare and healthcare and drug rehab for the rest of their lives. Sometimes you just have to cut bait and pick up and go.
52
"40 percent of incomes come from federal transfers like Social Security."
"The county population has declined to under 22,000, of whom almost 3,500 people receive disability benefits."
"relocation and flood-proofing projects, started almost 20 years ago, cost $170 million in federal and state funds, more than $170,000 for every woman, man and child living in town today."
"The Army Corps of Engineers shaved off the flank of a mountain across the river to create an elevated platform on which the new commercial district would sit."
"Virginia’s Department of Transportation bulldozed much of the old downtown and routed U.S. 460 through it, built on top of a levee protecting what was left of Grundy’s old center."
"Overwhelmingly, they support President Trump"
Gotta love these 'small-government' Republican welfare queens.
Nothing in the world says Republican like award-winning hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance.
365
@Socrates
Exactly correct. Wealthy right-wingers evade taxes and profit from privatized public services while poor false-information Republican voters believe in their own rugged independence while surviving on government handouts.
Guess who pays for both these groups.
74
@Socrates (and all those who lodged recommendations)
Your facts are indisputable. But that tone ... that's what the Rust Belt is lodging "protest votes" over. The last genetic memory of union loyalty to the Democrats in this region evaporated with the "basket of deplorables" revelation.
Whether openly or subliminally, much of the population in these communities know they are doomed. But they aren't gonna go down without bloodying the nose of outsiders who openly mock them.
I do not support them. But you have to understand them, if you want to win the electoral college.
If you can't hold out a sympathetic hand, don't make things worse by laughing in their faces.
20
@Socrates
What’s actually produced in Verona, NJ?
5
Earlier this week the NYT has a masterful interactive story on small particle air pollution. It is deadly to people. Historically coal was one of the principal culprits that accounted for such air pollution. The areas which produced such coal and those that burned it are all now in decline. In the 60s and 70s we learned the damage that such pollution did to us. In the 70s and 80s we saw the damage that burning coal brought to rural areas in the form of acid rain. We moved to correct both such situations and tge result has been the production of much less coal which in its production causes great harm to humans in areas where it is produced.
Moving beyond the carnage for humans and nature happens at a relatively minor cost of decline of the areas that produce coal. It is a small price to pay for a great benefit.
10
In fairness to political support for coal it is worth acknowledging that politicians traveling to the Midwest all speak to the viability of ethanol as a fuel, produced from corn. Ethanol, like wind energy are currently viable due to government support. Wind energy may be the future or perhaps it isn’t, but national policy matters. It’s not wrong for a community to cling to past trends when politicians arrive to make promises.
I give everyone in Grundy respect for trying to produce something and wanting to do their traditional hard and dangerous work. What does the dominant industry in Washington actually produce? Politicians like Trump, the FDA who didn’t effectively regulate opioids, the FAA who didn’t oversee aircraft safety standards, etc.
10
Wind energy is viable without government support and it is the future, if we are to have one.
17
@Col Flagg
Time marches on.
Just like the whaling industry, coal mining is over. It's a fact. Once people get used to it and pick themselves up, dust themselves off and move forward, they'll be better off.
Children cry over a broken toy. But adults can have a good cry and then move on.
No jobs in your town? Move. To expect the world to stop and pay your way for the rest of your life is ridiculous. Those people resort to drugs and alcohol wasting their life.
I don't feel sorry for these people. Life goes on. Go with it.
11
Ethanol is a disaster, leading farmers to move production from food crops to corn for ethanol. It’s extremely inefficient, costing more in energy to produce than it delivers. And, it’s still emitting greenhouse gasses.
8
An earlier comment suggested paying attention in school. It struck me as harsh and cynical, but then I started thinking about my high school graduating class. My home town was exactly like Grundy, coal dependent, and its current condition exactly reflects that of Grundy except it has not been the recipient of nearly as much Federal aid. Of the top 10 in my class, of which I was fortunate to be one, nearly all went to college and entered careers far from our home town. All are currently enjoying a financially secure retirement.
37
@TDi'd - American education isn't what it used to be and thanks to people like DeVos it's going to get worse.
3
The massive sameness of the USA may be its strength but it's really its detriment. Tourism here? Sorry but what's there to see really. I study medieval art and there's something to see outside of major cities in Europe. (We have Disneyland, Disney World, Epcot Center in places with generally very good weather.) Even Spring Green, WI, where Frank L Wright's Taliesin East is located is dying. There is nearly nothing (white water rafting) close to Falling Water - Kaufman House at Bear Run Pa. OTOH Biltmore and Ashville seem to thrive. (Better weather and I suspect roads.)
Self-sufficiency -- the farm - has pretty much gone away. (Appalachia -- life in the hills has been an remains difficult- even with enough income.) Living in Portsmouth - now the opioid center of Ohio - even in Cincinnati, I had decided at about age 12 that I wanted out. It was NYC - no stocking in shoes in the summer, no white gloves -- plenty of other stuff but not that. I wanted to be near the sea and to not have to drive. When I think of sanctuary city, I think of the folk from these dying towns... just as much as a Latin American woman fleeing an abusive husband or a gang -- there are those thruout the USA as well. And hello David Brooks -- here is another example of the taxpayer supporting the private sector__ economically is this really capitalism? (Rob Ptere, pay Paul!)
14
"The income of Buchanan County’s residents has fallen to about two-thirds of the national average. And about 40 percent of that comes from federal transfers like Social Security."
"Since the last industry peak, in 2012, the coal mines of Buchanan County have shed 1,000 jobs — roughly half. And they are not paying quite as well as they once did. Mikey Elswick estimates that 90 percent of his family has worked in the coal industry, including his father, his uncle and his brother-in-law. Still, he got out four years ago after Cambrian Coal bought the mine where he worked and said it would cut wages to around $20 an hour from $22.50."
The time has come for us to realize that this sad state of affairs can be corrected. Conservative Republicans and neoliberal Democrats have enabled a bloodless crony capitalist revolution that has gone unnoticed by the people most affected -- the people of Grundy, VA and other communities who looked away while crony capitalist negotiated NAFTA, trade deals with China and even the ACA.
Wake up y'all. November 3, 2020 is coming and the choice is yours to make at the ballot box.
10
It was easy for Trump to say that he would bring back coal, just as easy as all the lies that have come out of his mouth. I grew up in a factory town and it is littered with warehouses that have gone bust. Vote for people who will actually have a real plan to put more money in your pocket, help your kids get healthcare and help with job retraining.
48
Evolve or die.
That's been life's successful recipe for millions of years.
It involves continuous learning, education, and elevation of the mind over matter and bad habits.
It seems many of the younger folks of coal country understand that.
The older folks in love with 19th century coal and 20th century thinking need to rethink their filthy-fossil-fuel-based love affair.
105
Social Darwinism does not seem to be your default answer in the comments. But I’ll keep it in mind going forward.
4
@GM
so·cial Dar·win·ism
noun
noun: social Darwinism
the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.
I do not think tat Socrates is suggesting anything like social Darwinism.
1
Some times you just have to move on. Really. Physically move. The Oakies moved on from the Dust Bowl. Lots of people get retrained after the age of 50. It all starts with attitude. If your attitude starts with "I'm a victim of circumstance" you make an uphill trek even steeper. You also give the Victim in Chief, a NYC billionaire, an opportunity to feign victimhood so he can seem "like one of us." Moving on, like everything else, is easier said than done. But the important frame of reference is that it's easier done than not done. Not moving on leaves you in the midst of the confluence of all the economic and social forces that contribute to your situation.
41
@Concerned Citizen ----Neither Obama or Trump are to blame for the plight of this town and the people...they need fix it themselves, one way or another.
3
@Concerned Citizen
Well, I became a librarian at 48. Is that close enough to 50 for you? And many firefighters become EMTs when they retire from the service. I really don't think it would be hard to find people who started new careers at 50.
3
@Frank - Moving is expensive. The Oakies didn't have to pay first and last month's rent plus a deposit in addition to all the other costs of moving.
I think moving is a good idea. I've done it myself but it's not easy.
1
My husband is in commercial print manufacturing. Lived in Houston, Denver,New York, Florida, Dallas, and now Indiana. Manufacturing moves families as well. Having family support in our community is not my reality. Economies change and we have to adapt to them. We also moved with a special needs child every time.
27
Very sad to read about these communities. They are crying out for a plan to save them. The Green New Deal is nice but someone needs to connect the dots as to practically, how will that be applied to this type of community. Leveraging the power of capitalism of course, not government since that's a bad word. Elizabeth Warren is probably the only candidate who would take on the challenge of spelling that out. Of course she should stay away from talking about her taxation stuff as that's anathema in this area even if they're benefitting from it.
5
Communities should think about this type of decline while the are still on the upswing. I come from a New England manufacturing town background. There, companies externalized their cost structures by forcing towns to build out infrastructure for low-wage workers. Then when the business fails or leaves, the town is left with that infrastructure, which goes from low-wage employee housing to housing of last resort for people with social service support. It would have been better in many of those towns to tear down that housing when the business dried up (and to have escrowed money from the company in good times, to pay for that demolition). That would encourage people to follow the jobs, rather than people staying put or, worse, new people without jobs moving in.
7
"Overwhelmingly, they support President Trump, who promised to bring coal back. But it doesn’t look as if they have much faith in the promise. "
There is no one answer to help fix Grundy, but the one thing I guarantee won't fix it is coal ever again. Its gone and anyone who tells you different is lying. Which is not to say that trump won't try to sell his snake oil again.
I don't wish these people ill. In fact, I lost my job on November 1st. Technology and a budget cut have left me looking for a new job at 57. But I live in a much larger metropolitan area where there is a international airport. Why would businesses move to Grundy that is at least a couple of hours away from the population center of Charleston? Simple answer, they won't.
I believe the human race is involved in a slow global migration to re-orientate themselves. As human needs change, some town will not survive and other towns will grow. Grundy probably won't survive in its present configuration.
56
@Concerned Citizen
I think you're the one who should read it again, more carefully.
Virginia is not a "very blue state", it has only just recently barely become "blue", and that only because of strongly Democratic urban areas of Virginia. As the article said, this town is overwhelmingly Trump supporters. Trump lied when he told them he would bring back coal jobs. At least Hilary Clinton and Obama were honest in telling these people that the jobs were going and never coming back and that they should try to re-train for other jobs. That they preferred to hear Trump's lies than the harder truths is the reason this country is in an even bigger mess than it really needs to be.
1
What industry that relies on natural resources hasn't been disrupted in the last few decades. Imagine the impact if that $170,000 per person was used for relocation and training opportunities? Communities like these might be prime candidates for a Green New Deal type programs. You gotta "know when to fold 'em".
190
@DC Directing billions for retraining was the Hillary Clinton plan and you see how the coal miners treated her. They deserve what they get.
134
Exactly, or if they simply gave each family relocation money taxed from the coal industry.
6
@George McDaniel
And you, in turn, doom us to potential failure in the electoral college ... again.
6
This sad story gets repeated around the nation. It's not just coal. Dairy farming used to be the backbone of the Central NY economy. Our towns are smaller than Grundy and the population is declining. Last year our high school graduated 29. When my husband attended the same school back in the 50s, his graduating class was 56. Notice that was before the baby boom.
The villages used to be vibrant with service jobs and a strong sense of community. I recently heard that our Episcopal Church is in danger of closing. Most of the stores have already gone. Even bars have shut down.
People here voted for Trump in 2016. It looks to me as if that didn't help much, but I don't hear much awareness of that fact. The decline continues.
208
@Betsy S It absolutely floors me how anyone, particularly the desperate, can have any expectation for economic relief, let alone compassion, from a painfully obvious con artist like Trump. I just don't understand it.
169
@Betsy S well, you are right about the dairies, but I gott say, driving through those areas, about 8 times a year for the last 22 years, the new roofs and siding and new cars are now showing up on the farms where there are windmills and solar - another government-subsidized program but some of the farmers have realized that their land has considerable value going green, much more than they had when they were raising dairy herds. It's a thing of beauty. And those new roofs, siding, cars and likely interior builds, are making jobs for other people in the community too. Nice to see the future in action
16
Spot on. My father's family and relatives lived for decades in an area stretching from Norwich to Massena, and a majority of them were dairy farmers. But there were also plenty of industrial jobs to be had in Cortland, Syracuse, and Watertown. I've traveled through that area since the 1950s and it is sad to see the slow and steady decline of farming and manufacturing. In the years since I attended grad school at SU; GE, Carrier, Allied Chemical, Alcoa, GM, Reynolds, Smith Corona, and others have either closed up shop or downsized dramatically.
It's tough for residents to just pack up and leave, especially with so many generational ties to the area. And yes, the demographics are shifting older and older. If not for federal, state, and local government employment, the situation would be far worse: Jefferson County would be economically dead if not for Fort Drum.
This is one of the most scenic areas in the US, so tourism does provide much-needed revenue. But that can't carry the load. I expect there will continue to be economic emigration for some time to come. The good-paying jobs are hard to come by outside of cities like Syracuse and Rochester, both of which are fortunate to have major universities and medical schools.
8
Ironic, these people overwhelmingly support a president who is cutting their lifeline.
That being said, change and movement have been constants in the American experience. We can't find enough workers here to fill the available jobs, many of which start at over $20/hr. Not all towns live forever. Let go. Move on.
24
I know -- how about a COPD & asthma treatment center?
4
Here's a novel idea. Pay attention in school. Learn something someone cares about. Finally, be willing to relocate to a part of the country where jobs and progress is happening. Hey! It worked for my kids.
109
@h king. As the article stated, young people are indeed leaving. The population is declining. But seriously, it is not fair to chastise unemployed (or underemployed) 50-year-olds like Mr. Ward for not knowing in high school - 35 years ago! - that coal would be in decline in his middle age. People of that era thought they were were choosing a difficult and dangerous job in exchange for a good long-term wage. Turns out they were wrong, but a little sympathy and understanding is in order.
139
@ h king A smart, attentive student in Grundy is neither more nor less smart than students in the thriving suburbs of Northern Virginia or Richmond. I think the article does a good job of conveying the complexities of the situation people in these community face. People can always leave, sure. But what choices, actions, and policies at community, market, and political levels would help during a period of rapid change and dislocation?
23
And that’s how Trump got elected: attitudes like that.
How about some empathy?
For generations they trusted their elected leaders who were telling them coal was the answer.
And now it’s not.
They love their community and their families. Telling them to move just sounds like a condescending insult, especially when their parents and grandparents helped power the economy for your parents and grandparents.
Telling them they were wrong half a lifetime ago in school is beyond insensitive. It’s cruel.
67
How many of these people believed Donald Trump's lie that he'd revive the coal Industry? Coal-fired power plants have continued to close under the Trump Administration therefore reducing the need for coal. Tariffs on foreign-made steel have accomplished nothing. Hopefully in 2020 they remember this when they enter the voting booth.
117
@alan
Hillary had a detailed $30 billion plan to help revive coal communities with designated funding. It had a big emphasis on education and green energy jobs. Like the attempts for this community it might not have worked but it was a heck of a lot better than the fantasy Trump offered.
Instead of reporting on that plan the media preferred to take her comment about coal jobs being destroyed out of context. Here is the rest of her statement:
“And we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce energy that we relied on.“
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/15/16306158/hillary-clinton-hall-of-mirrors
After she lost I actually heard pundits say that she had nothing to offer “those people”. In fact she had talked about how to create good jobs more than any other candidate. But her emails!!
We need a national discussion about how to help our dying small towns and cities. We helped rebuild destroyed German cities after WWII because we knew democracy required it but we can’t be bothered saving our own communities. Our democracy is badly weakened by leaving them behind.
38
@Theodora30: Thank you for completing that misleading "deplorables" comment of Hillary's. I'm sick of that false narrative that the GOP, their fear mongering media outlets, and voters have repeated ad nauseum as a justification for not voting for her.
8
@alan
CT shut its last coal burning power plant this year.
4
Coal mining is such an outlier of a job: a low skill job with high pay because of danger. You cannot plunk down a law school or pharmacy school in an otherwise “dead town” and expect the school and town filled with low skill adults to prosper. The only way to rescue Grundy is to now provide 15$/hr minimum wage with both parents working, improve the schools and nutrition and health and raise the children into skilled workers who can then rebuild Grundy with computer jobs etc at higher pay.
16
Have you ever been to Grundy or a town like that? No business there is going to pay $15/hour. They’d go out of business. $15/hour might be appealing in the cities, but it is infeasible in most of the country, and particularly places like Grundy.
17
@JC Wal-Mart could. Imagine the resulting economic impact those workers would then have on the rest of the community, eventually lifting other business' there who could then pay $15 an hour (and also relying less on government services).
Far-fetched? It's the same sentiment that Ford had: Pay his workers enough to buy his own product.
It's not easy but it's not impossible.
15
@SC.
I have to take exception to something you said. Having toured many mines and spoken with many miners I would hardly call coal mining, or any sort of mining for that matter a low skilled job.
True, it's a job which does not require much in the way of formal schooling to start but there is a great deal of on the job training involved. After a few years these guys are indeed experts at doing a physically demanding and dangerous job and doing it safely.
Miners take a great deal of pride in those skills. Yes, those skills are not easily transferable to the sort of work that there's a demand for today but let's show a little respect. I wouldn't want to do that work and if someone put me in a mine unsupervised with jackhammers and dynamite we'd likely cause a cave in.
In short not all skills are learned in a classroom or behind a computer terminal. A little respect for what people already know and for men and women who work with their hands would go a long way to bridging the rural urban gap.
53
Decades after the last mines closed in the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys in Northeast PA, the area is still depressed. I don't know what the answer is to fix the problem.
25
@Joe It is not a solvable problem. Humans will live and work where there are services and supplies - and a decent paying wage. If there are no significant, well paying employers in an area you can't make them come - tax incentives break the town down just as fast and when the incentives are done, the company moves on - my employer did that in Delaware, left a small force behind because the Governor was going to publicly shame them after all the cash they didn't have to pay while they were there. This is not new. Maybe there is a small amount of tourism available, but business likes its perks, and its breaks, and a ready supply of labor close to major airports, and they don't exist in Lackawanna or Wyoming Valley.
3
@Joe Don’t worry...Barletta will save you.