re: #127 Decatur Deb

And what they are being offered today is pretty much the same, ith less chance of insurance paying for the oxygen.

I’ve been struck by the -at least, superficial - similarities between the Trump (Mal-)Administration’s coal policies, and those of the British Governments of the 1960s and ’70s: both seemed bent on expensively sustaining outdated and un-economic extraction industries for political purposes. Though the Brits (as their coal mines were nationalized) focused on maintaining full-employment among the (highly-organized and highly-militant) unionized workforce. Here, though - in the homeland of Holy Private Enterprise - the focus seems (for now) to be on tweaking removing safety and environmental regulations to try to boost the owners’ bottom line; and hope that enough will trickle down to keep enough miners employed. And voting Republican, of course.
Coal may not be a “dying” industry just yet, but it seems to have reached a plateau - as the British coal industry did by the mid-’70s. While direct subsidies don;t seem to be (AFAIK) in the cards yet, I’m sure that somewhere in the recesses of the Trump regime, a direct-support plan is gathering dust in drawer somewhere: for alll that the GOP loves to crow about “free markets”, when votes (and donations) are on the line, it’s amazing what they will be willing to spend (of taxpayers’ money).