re: #147 Backwoods_Sleuth

He can “retire” young because his health is so bad he can barely breathe getting from one room to another.

And that alleged $80,000/year vanishes the day he “retires”.

Real life? The range for a laborer at a large underground mine is $13.99 to $30.25.

I have read that a few decades ago, they could retire on disability which was enough to live on, having paid for a house and sent their kids to college or whatever before black lung got them. This doesn’t happen any more for a variety of reasons.