re: #341 Blind Frog Belly White

It’s been pointed out that more jobs have been lost in retail in the last year than there were mining jobs at the very peak of employment. I don’t see Trump vowing to bring back brick-and-mortar stores.

Mining, like steelwork, or automaking, is one of those ‘manly’ jobs, of course, whereas a lot of retail workers are women. ‘Miners’ is really an emotional shortcut word that elicits the ideal of the hard working American white guy. Nobody thinks ‘Miner’ and imagines a woman*.

*Though lots of guys think ‘minor’ and imagine a woman….

My industry (Jewelry from retail to refining) lost over half of it’s people, mfg capacity, some huge chunk of showroom space in just a handful of years. 100 year plus firms went down like dominoes. We already had no unions, few with medical fewer with retirement, many on commission.